Mass Effect: The inFAMOUS Ancient
by StrengthAndHonour
Summary: Commander Yara Shepard wakes up in a secret Cerberus facility, next to the Saviour of Mankind. This epic telling will follow their adventure through the 22nd Century, the Fall of Cerberus, and the Routing of the Reapers. / Expect spoilers, suggestive!Everyone, and slow updates. This IS on the back-burner :D May change from 'T' rating to 'M', if plot bunnies dig their holes
1. Chapter 1- BEGINNINGS

Disclaimer: There may be mentions of things found to be unpleasant by sane people- e.g. rape, torture, etc. Torture may even be followed through.

**BEGINNINGS**

Commander Yara Shepard looked out of the Port Observation Deck out into the stars. Her N7 Armour held in her calming breath as she considered the latest directive from the Council. They had decided that she was to patrol the borders of Citadel Space in preparation for a geth incursion. _A geth incursion!_ What retarded politician thought that the geth were a problem? She'd thought that her presentation on the threats of the Reapers had changed their minds…

Well, Joker seemed to be enjoying flying 'his baby' under complete radio silence and stealth conditions, at least.

Shepard turned from the reinforced window, hitting the button to draw down the shutters. As they slid down covering the beautiful ethereal view, she walked back to the airlock, and stepped through. Suddenly, the proximity alarms sounded, prompting Shepard to run to the elevator. She hammered the CIC button as the alarm continued- this was not a drill!

"We have an unidentified ship on a collision course! All hands prepare for a hard fight! I repeat, _they can see us!_" Joker's voice resounded through the ship. Just as he said this, he started again.

"Watch out! They've got some sort of cutting laser! We-" Joker didn't finish before there was an almighty screech of ripping metal. Looking out of a nearby porthole, Shepard noted her collection of model starships floating away into the stars.

"Brace yourselves! More is com-" BOOM!

The Commander bolted down the hallway to the life pod terminal, flipping up the plastic cover and slamming the Big Red Button. The pod doors slip up, allowing entry to the panicking crew. Shepard continued monitoring the pods, making sure they were all enabled, and provisions were being stocked inside.

"Commander! Commander, we need to leave! Come on! Joker refuses to leave the cockpit!"

Yara lifted her head. It was just like Joker to go down with the ship. "Liara, get to a pod, I'll get Joker and be right there. _Now!_" She said, as she pulled on her helmet and started running toward the cockpit. Once there, she stepped through the waving energy field, and into the protective atmosphere.

"Joker! We need to go! Come on!"

"But Commander! I can still save her!"

"No! The Normandy's already lost!" Shepard grabbed his arm, and he yelled in pain.

"Ow! Watch the arm!"

"Joker, Get yourself to a pod now, or I'll bring you back and tie you to the ground! Understand?" Joker, nodded, and took her extended hand. As Yara hauled Joker out of his seat, and set him down on his feet, the ship shook once more. She hurried Joker to the pilot's pod, and pushed him in. Just as soon as she did, the artificial gravity gave out, and she ended up pushing herself out of reach of any of the ship.

"Commander!"

Yara spun around, slowly, until she found herself just within reach of the pod release. It was press the release, and save Joker, while killing herself, or leaving it and hoping the timer was soon enough to save her and Joker…

A yellow beam of light seared her vision, burning through the hull like paper. An explosion threw her to the other side of the CIC, struggling all the way to grab some of the tattered ribs or her once-glorious ship.

No go.

She tried to remain calm. She knew there was no saving herself. It was… possible that she could survive the fall… if she flew into a pod. Or something. She was fucked.

* * *

Cole MacGrath stood on top of the New Marais Cathedral, with the RFI in his hands. Before him stood Lucy Kuo, crying quietly in fear of the coming storm.

"Why, Kuo? Why did you join the Beast? Out of fear? Or hate?" The agent looked up, her tears freezing before they hit the tiles of the church.

"Because I was _scared!_ I thought I'd die, but I _see_ now. If we die, then millions will be saved! I- I'm sorry Cole… I thought, that maybe…"

Lucy Kuo never finished her sentence, as Cole summoned a true lightning bolt- one of his old ones- down from the heavens. Her last thought was of how wrong she'd been- Cole could never betray humanity- he missed it too much.

As the tiles cracked and cooled, Cole cast one last glance at his friend Lucy Kuo. For a small time, he'd thought… But in the end, she put herself above others. That wasn't what they were there for.

Cole turned to the Beast, as it slowly waded through buildings and ruins towards him. He took out the RFI, thinking of Nix, who'd died to give him more time. He silently sent out a prayer that she was with her mother now, and her 'babies' the swamp monsters. He slowly built up the charge in his hands, letting only the purest of his energy into them. He aimed the RFI straight at John's chest, and let go of his control.

A pearlescent beam of pure white shot out and lanced through the Beast's chest, the hole burning larger until the man he thought he'd known crumbled to ash. Satisfied, Cole released his hold on the RFI- or tried to. He couldn't stop the flow of energy, it was sucking him dry! Pulses of white and blue light radiated outwards, out of view and across the horizon. Screams resounded from across the city, as first one, then two, then three and then more people felt their own bodies being ripped apart. The ripples of Inhibitor energy reached across the globe, until every last Conduit was dead and soulless. It ripped apart the Conduit gene, leaving every chance of that generation becoming superhuman in the dust.

Cole finally succeeded in ripping his hands off of the RFI, but it was too late. The waves of energy came crashing around the Earth, until they found their origin- him. The force knocked him off of the roof and crashing to the stone slabs a hundred metres below.

The Prime Conduit screamed at the sky as he felt himself shred into millions of shards and turn inwards. At least Zeke would be free of the Plague now… Cole hunched over, planting the tips of the Amp in the concrete ground in front of the Cathedral.

He took one last look around, taking in the run-down stone facades, the scaffolding, and the worn-out people. They smiled at him, and his eyes closed one last time.

* * *

_Beep… Beep… Beep… BeepBeepBeep!_

"Miranda! She's showing response to outside stimuli!"

"Sedate her! It's too early!" Turning to Shepard, a figure said, "Shepard, listen to me! Don't move, lay still!" Speaking to the other figure again, it said, "Make sure the other subject isn't doing the same, Wilson!"

Yara's vision went black again, and she went back to dreaming about a craggy-faced man and a lightning storm.

* * *

Cole awoke to a feeling of great cold. And that was saying something, seeing as he was used to Kuo freezing his bollocks off. He could feel his muscles ache from lack of use, and his brain felt fuzzy- he was low on energy. He cracked open an eye, and quickly wished he hadn't- he had a killer headache.

He'd caught a brief view of a sterile white room, with a bed and another figure on it. He peeped again. This time, there was a red tinge to the room, and a blaring klaxon startled him out of his fuzzy-minded state. The figure on the table beside him started to stir.

"I don't have long, so listen closely- the station is under attack, and we need to get you out. Take the armour and weapons in the locker to your left, and get moving! Meet me at the docking bay!"

Weird. Cole looked around, taking in the sterile floors and surfaces, and the super-high tech computers and stuff. He quickly jumped over the table he'd been laid on, and stood in front of one computer. He tried to drain it, but it was almost as if he didn't have any powers! He received a trickle of energy, but it was like New Marais all over again- he had to build up his power base once more.

"Gah! Again? Why do I always lose my powers at times like this?"

"What?" Cole spun around, coming face-to-face to a pretty, petite red-haired woman who looked ready to beat him to the ground. His kind of girl.

"I was told to get some armour on. I… have no idea what it is or how to do that. Help, please? I'll explain later."

It took a second of disbelief, but the woman- she looked barely twenty- quickly marched over to the locker, and tipped out two piles of identical style armour, and two little metal cuboids. After some fumbling, Cole was dressed in a kind of plastic-fibreglass-metal armour suit, with his clothes in a small sack. He picked up the metal cuboid.

"What's this, a lunchbox?" He tried a few buttons, but none worked until the red one caused it to rapidly change shape into some futuristic pistol. Looking at it, he could feel the energy coursing through it, but he just couldn't tap into it! He'd think on this later.

The woman shook her head, and signalled him to follow her. _Don't mind if I do…_ he thought, as he lithely sprung after her.

He turned the corner into the ante-chamber to find her bending over, picking up some red and black cylinders.

"These are clips, you put them in the space on the side of the gun. See?" She seemed to have immediately caught onto his unfamiliarity with the tech, and sought to remedy it. Cole snapped a clip into his pistol, testing its weight. Next to nothing. Good.

He'd never fired a gun before, so this would be interesting.

"Uh… So what's your name? Mine's Cole." He immediately regretted saying his name- her brow furrowed in recognition. _Shit! She knows who I am!_

"Cole… Where've I heard that before…?" The pair had continued down the hallway, and over some boxes- almost like a barricade. Miranda's voice came over the intercom again.

"Shepard, you're going to have to look after this man- he has literally no clue about tech! Teach him to fight while you make your way to the docking bay- and hurr-ry!" The link buzzed out at the end.

Shepard looked at him then. The man had a craggy, yet handsome face, and hair shorn short. He had some electric blue tattoos on his arms- one of a caduceus, and one of an aegis. He held the gun like it was going to explode at any moment. There was a strange set of lines on his right temple, curving down to his cheek. She knew his face from somewhere…

"What's the matter, uh, Cole? It won't explode. It's just circuit boards and a mass drive. Nothing else." The man looked relieved at that, and gripped it right.

"I- The last time I held a gun, it blew up in my face. Damn near took my hand off!"

"Commander Yara Shepard. Spectre for the Citadel Council… And you have no idea who they are, do you?"

"Nope."

Cole shrugged. He'd never really paid attention to politics- and it was hard to do so when under quarantine.

"Well, I'll explain as we go. Come on."

The little lady stalked forwards into the hall, straight into an ambush. There were these weird humanoid robot things that shouted tripe like 'all trespassers will be shot' et cetera. He took one look at the gun he was holding, and sighted down the 'barrel'. _Crack!_

He fired a shot at the mech's head. A bright, incandescent beam of light lanced out, and wove between the three mechs that had stomped up.

They sparked and blew up before Yara could fire a shot. She looked at him, and then at his gun. The average M-3 Predator smoked slightly. Cole grinned, and sauntered off.

"Hey! You- You're going the wrong way!" That brought him back.

Going down the hallway marked 'Docking Bay' this time, Yara continued telling Cole about the galaxy at large. She spoke about Turians, and the First Contact War. Then she told him about the Systems Alliance, and the member countries, and how they got together. Then she told him of the other species, and the various treaties and relations. She was about to go into the Reaper problem when an YMIR mech started hammering on a window covered in blood. Cole took one look, and sent a worried glance at Yara. She didn't react- she knew the window would hold.

Yara continued on her explanation of the current events, and what had happened before she woke up here. Then, it was Cole's turn. She looked expectantly at him, slightly confused as to where she knew his face from.

"I- You recognised my name, didn't you? First, what year is it?"

"When I was hunting geth forces, it was 2183, I have no clue now. I… I died. I was thrown from the wreck of my ship down to a planet. I… have no idea how I survived."

"_WHAT?_ When I died, it was 2012! I've been dead a hundred and seventy years?!"

Just as he said that, he saw another mech ahead. Without even thinking, he swung his arm up and fired the gun again. This time, it sent a slightly duller ray of energy, destroying the mech, but shorting out the gun.

"Well shit." Yara looked at him. The only Cole she'd ever heard of… had died in 2012… Saving mankind from the Plague and killing the renegade Joseph Bertrand III and the Beast. Thousands died, but millions were saved. This was that Cole?

"It doesn't matter about the gun! Do you not see? We've been brought back to life! But why…?"

Yara looked around, seeing an office. She stepped in, quickly firing off two shots into the heads of the two mechs crawling around on the floor. Then, she opened up a computer and started going through the logs. It took maybe two minutes before she brought them up and played them. It was startling stuff. It turned out that to retrieve Shepard's body, they practically had to use a scraper and a bucket.

For Cole it was another matter.

The people of New Marais had dubbed him the Saint of New Marais, their Saviour. His Amp was still planted in front of the Cathedral, and it was a place of pilgrimage for those who knew dead Conduits. Zeke had put him on a ship, and set sail for the ruins of Empire City. On the way there, a bolt of lightning had struck down from the heavens, and settled over his forehead. It had seeped into his skin, giving him the strange tattoo-like design on his face. Once at Empire, Zeke had buried him among the rubble, next to Trish.

But the agents sent to retrieve him had found him, nearly two hundred years later, full-bodied and asleep. No reconstruction needed. They couldn't figure out how to bring him back, until a man called Wilson suggested using Ray Field Energy. So their employer had built another Ray Sphere, and with the latest technology. They had put him in a chamber far removed from every form of life, and flooded it with the worst criminals in the galaxy. Approaching one million inmates, sucked dry to bring back his powers. With a vengeance.

Cole hadn't conducted energy in nearly two centuries, and it was taking some time for his core to release the tightly-held energy. His anger at finding out the cost, and shock at finding himself in the future released the final bonds.

* * *

As Yara left Cole listening to the logs, she went over to the wall safe, and robbed it of all its contents. A couple thousand credits, some thermal clips, and a porn mag.

She pushed the thought aside, intent on following it up later. For now, they had to get out of the station. The hairs on the back of her neck raised. Turning around, she saw Cole hunched over the terminal. Electricity coursed down his arms like water, stemming from his shoulders. The ripples cascaded down, leaping off now and then and shocking a metal appliance.

"Cole! What's happening? Calm down, please!" Cole stood, and swiftly marched out of the room, and down the hall. He came to a crossroads, of two doors without panels, and one with an access panel. He shot lightning out of his hands at the unavailable one in front of him, blasting it open in an array of sparks.

He stalked through, dripping molten sparks to the floor as he went. He came to an open door, which had two signs. The one on the right said 'Docking Bay'. He was about to turn right when the door at the end of the hallway to his left opened and a man bolted through.

Cole shot a bolt at the panel, sealing the door shut behind the man.

* * *

**A/N**: I would like to say thanks to those who reviewed- yes, _reviewed_\- my other FF 'HPatBK', which allowed me to _understand_ the _interest_ in some of my other, unpublished work. If this pleases, tell me why. If it doesn't- talk nicely. I have man-PMS. All the time. Grr.


	2. Chapter 2- REVELATIONS

Disclaimer: If ye know of Harry Potter, then ye know I don't own it- I'm male. Seemplz.

**REVELATIONS**

_He stalked through, dripping molten sparks to the floor as he went. He came to an open door, which had two signs. The one on the right said 'Docking Bay'. He was about to turn right when the door at the end of the hallway to his left opened and a man bolted through._

_Cole shot a bolt at the panel, sealing the door shut behind the man._

* * *

"Whew, thanks man! What was that? Lightning? Or a Reegar Carbine? Name's Jacob Taylor. You?" Cole turned away, and walked to the Docking Bay door, blasting it open again. The black guy just stood there gawping. His mini-afro curling in the static let off by the man. He turned to the woman running behind him.

"Uh… Did I say something?"

"No, he just read a log terminal. I had a look- something about him being _raised from the fucking dead_ instead of staying with his wife. The place was torn down around her when the excavation team left. On a man called Wilson's orders…?"

"Oh, I know Wilson. Never thought he'd stoop that low to save credits. All exhumed bodies should be properly re-interred. Cerberus protocol- we value our ancestor's trials, Commander. And not all of us are xenophobic."

"Cerberus… I know you… You're the human supremacist group that's been getting big for their boots!"

"Nope. Only some cells have been getting antsy- the rest of us, like this one here, are so top-secret, only the Illusive Man kn- _shit_ where's MacGrath?" Taylor bolted for the still-smouldering doorway, following the trail of broken doors and molten sparks.

He approached computer room C, just as Cole found Wilson.

"You! You- What happened to Trish? Why didn't you bring her back? You brought _her_ back, but not Trish? You tumbled our _tomb_ down over her, without one last shred of respect? _Who do you think you are?!_" Cole was so furious, every time he moved sparks flew off and singed the walls and floor. If he wasn't careful, he'd kill Wilson.

"Cole, put him down! Now isn't the time to do this, we need to get off the station, _then_ we can rake his brains about what he has and hasn't done!"

Cole swung around and glared at her. His eyes had turned bright blue, glowing with barely restrained energy. They slowly dimmed, as he let Wilson sag to the ground, choking on the newfound air.

"We'll sort all this weird shit out when we're away from here. I want to know about your powers, and you still need to know more about this time. Come on."

Yara took a pot-shot at the explosive container blocking their way, which rebounded and smacked Wilson in the arse. He howled in pain as he felt his buttocks fuse together. Cole smirked.

And then booted him so hard the man flew the length of the hallway. He skidded to a stop at the door. Yara raised her eyebrows at him. Cole smirked again.

He then blasted the door through again, and picked up Wilson by the scruff of his shirt, and carried him the rest of way.

* * *

At the docking bay, Miranda stood waiting. She turned her head and gunsight to the sound of a massive explosion- the access door just blew in, and straight out of the bay doors.

A strange sight made its way through the smoke. A tall man with closely-cropped sandy hair walked long strides towards her, dragging a crying man- Wilson. The tall man wore a tight-fitting bodysleeve under a set of N7 Armour. His boots clunked along the metal decks like a ticking down to doomsday. His expression stood out like light in the dark- utter disgust and hate on such a kind face. A shorter woman strode next to him, with shoulder-length red hair tucked behind her right ear. She also wore N7 armour, and looked slightly upset. Jacob trotted along behind like a good guard dog.

"Took you long enough. We need to get out of here before more mechs arrive." She said, pointing at a pile of broken robots. Cole looked up from the quivering man and said,

"Lock this guy up. I'll talk to him later. _Don't. Kill. Him._" His face was terrifying, even to her- and she'd faced down a horny Yahg.

"R- right. Get on board, and we'll get to a safe place." Jacob raised his eyebrows. Miranda stuck her tongue out. She really should stop flirting with everything that moves. It gave the wrong impression. Although… the Jacob _was_ quite hot.

Just before everyone got on the shuttle, Cole turned around. He could feel the mass of electricity in this place… unable to be earthed… He smiled. He felt the same.

Leaning over, he placed his hands on the metal deck. Suddenly, he tensed, as he drew as much power into himself as possible. Energy flowed into him, seemingly without end. _There must be a generator for this much power…_ Cole could feel his powers coming back to him, one by one. Shockwave, Ice Grenade, Megawatt Hammer, Hellfire Rockets, Static Thrusters, Gigawatt Blades, even Firebird Strike. Nothing with a colossal damage potential, but he'd get some more anyway. He could feel the power differences since his last time alive- he'd been the most powerful then, and he was ten times that now. Even with only the two hundred year old vestiges of his core, he could overload their weapons and make them do things.

He'd get some new powers, and then bring this organisation to its knees for disturbing Trish and killing so many. Or, he'd rip apart the guilty, and form a new organisation from the shreds. One that benefitted mankind by cooperating with the… xenos?

Cole turned around, ignoring the shocked faces of those in the shuttle.

* * *

Miranda and Jacob sat on one side of the shuttle, and Cole and Yara on the other. Wilson lay whimpering on the floor between them, clutching his fused backside. Miranda had refused him medi-gel on the grounds of him being a traitor.

"Shepard, before you meet with the Illusive Man, I need to ask a few questions to evaluate your condition." Miranda said.

"Come on Miranda, more tests? Shepard took down those mechs without any trouble. That has to be good enough." Jacob insisted, looking a bit disgruntled.

"It's been two years since the attack. The Illusive Man needs to know that Shepard's personality and memories are intact. Ask the questions." She ordered. Yara cut in.

"This is a waste of time! I feel fine!"

"OK, records show that you were a spacer kid. Raised mostly on one ship or another. You enlisted on an Alliance Military ship and won a medal during the Skyllian Blitz. Sound familiar?"

"Too many lives depended on me holding my position. I held it. Can we stop these questions?" Yara was frowning, obviously annoyed that they didn't take her word for it.

"It was damn impressive- I've got friends who were there. Now, are we done, Miranda?"

"Almost. On Virmire. Saren's cloning facility. You had to leave one of your squad behind. Kaidan Alenko died in action, left behind. Why?" Jacob looked _very_ uneasy asking this- you never questioned a superior officer's wartime decisions.

"I… I left him behind, but not casually. It… hurt to lose a close friend, an ally. But it was him or all of us. I couldn't condone allowing Saren to kill the two hundred plus crew if Kaidan took his time! He- he told me to leave him. To nuke the place, make sure no clones left the planet. He wanted to save our lives, and he _will_ be remembered for it!" Yara had tears in her eyes thinking about her friend, and the sacrifice. She had a small 'K.A.' tattooed on her inner left wrist. A reminder. She was rubbing it now, thinking of his happy-go-lucky attitude.

"I understand Commander. I wasn't questioning you, I was making sure you had recent memories too. I was an Alliance soldier, I don't question my superiors…"

"It's OK, I just- Kaidan was a close friend." Yara took a deep breath, and steadied her hands. Miranda, to her credit, noticed.

"Ok, MacGrath. What's the last thing you remember?" Miranda was intensely interested, he could tell-she was leaning over, whilst exposing an awesome amount of cleavage.

"I remember destroying the Beast, and looking at the ruined buildings around New Marais Cathedral. I remember seeing the people, glad that it was over. No more Plague, no more Conduits…" Cole sounded bitter at the end. If he could, he'd like to have someone who could understand him on every level…

Miranda's eyes softened, and the presence of the other two faded from her mind.

"Cole, there _are_ ways of making new Conduits now. I… have managed to keep the why and the how tucked away, but… The Illusive Man has been pressing me to give him a copy of your genome, and the isolated Conduit Gene. I told him I haven't made any progress, but… If you choose, you won't be alone in this galaxy any more. I read Dunbar's biography of you, it said something about your karma affecting your powers. Well, the same is true for you, Yara. If you choose to be ruthless and harsh, your scars will not heal, they will widen and get worse. So choose wisely." Miranda had ended up squishing her ample bosom out, almost to the point of breaking her bodysleeve.

Cole was trying hard not to stare, but _hell_. He hadn't seen cleavage that great since Nix decided to go topless one day!

Jacob coughed, bringing Miranda back to earth.

"We're on our way to see the Illusive Man right now. Don't reveal what you can do- if he isn't too interested in you, he'll focus on making Yara here a pawn. Yara- _you cannot let him control you_. He seeks to ultimately control the Reapers- and from there, control everything. The four of us, I know we can do something. If the Council knows of the Reaper threat _now_, then we have time to prepare. Jacob and I have been talking. We… We think that Cerberus is due for a change in leadership."

Yara raised her eyebrows, surprised at the trust shown by the kind-of-icy woman. She expected shadows and skulduggery, not an honest, open face. Maybe even… caring. She added that to her list of things to think of later. As it was, she could feel a slight sweat breaking out along her spine, and across her forehead. She felt… ill. _Don't tell me I have to rebuild my immune system! I'll have colds for years until I'm better!_

"Hey, Miranda?"

"Yes Shepard?"

"Why am I feeling ill if I only just came back? Didn't you, oh, I don't know, mess around a bit with me before fully waking me up?" Miranda was surprised at that- she hadn't expected the Commander to think of that.

"Well, yes, we did. It mostly Wilson, though." With that, she gave the man a vicious kick to the balls. For no reason. "He suggested we reinforce your bones and supplement your healing. There are state-of-the-art artificial glands in your torso that release a secretory medi-gel- you don't need it. The style of combat you preferred- staying at a mid-distance and shooting the enemy's eyes out- prompted the latest ocular synaptic implants to be used. Basically, you have better aim. There's nothing we did that should be making you feel ill. We chose not to make you a biotic- too many conflicting styles I thought. Maybe…" Miranda looked thoughtful, as she contemplated the lingering Ray Field Energy that was bound to stick to Cole.

It was non-lethal now, and it would vanish in the next few days. Maybe Yara Shepard was a potential Conduit? Admittedly, she hadn't screened her DNA because doing so would reveal that she knew the Conduit Gene's signifiers.

"Oh!" Cole sat rigid, wide-eyed. His ice-blue eyes slowly turned to Wilson's. He'd forgotten the _other_ reason he was feeling… wrathful.

"Wilson, how many people were used to reinforce my powers? How many people _died_?" Cole ground out. Miranda was livid.

"Wilson! I told you _not_ to use people! I told you to use the animals we had on-station! There were more than enough!" The balding man lay on the floor, cowering, trying to fade into the deck.

"I- I was told to by- by the Illusive Man! He boosted my pay-packet by over a million credits! I couldn't refuse him, he'd have me killed! Please, they would have died anyway!" Cole saw red. He whipped forwards, grabbing Wilson's face in one hand. He could feel the life energy inside him! Slowly, so as to give Wilson but a _taste_ of what those people had gone through, he drained every last iota of energy from the man, until there was only a spark left.

He'd be fine, in a few days. Until then, he'd feel the agony of Bio Leech. Cole sat back, sorting through the man's memories. Coming to something interesting, he broke the silence.

"Wilson didn't just amplify my powers, he tried to use the thing himself- it didn't work. _And_, he messed around a bit with my body- I knew something was wrong! There are metal studs down my spine and along my bones, to conduct electricity. And he manipulated my physiology to make me stronger, faster and more powerful. He didn't relay his notes to the Illusive Man, and he kept them on paper- no digital traces. He hacked the mechs to stop Miranda from finding out about the Ray Sphere, which was shot into the nearest sun, thank God!"

Now Cole knew about his changes, he noticed them. His drain was better than before- there was next to no loss of energy through sound, heat and light. He just _longed_ to try out his powers on something- he wanted to see the difference.

"Attention please. We are five minutes away from Cerberus Station 5X-Z. Prepare to disembark." An automated transmission. Fair enough.

"You say he manipulated your body? _And you still have full use_? Even for Wilson, I thought that was impossible!" Jacob was laughing silently at Miranda's admittance- it was rare she misjudged someone. Rarer still that she admitted it!

For the remainder of the flight, Cole ran his ice-white lightning across his hands, and up his arms. He made little balls to fly around Yara's head, keeping her mind off her dead friend. He also sent little static shocks to Wilson.

* * *

Book of the Week: The Sundering by Gav Thorpe

Film of the Week: Guardians of the Galaxy (MARVEL)

Song of the Week: Makeshift Chemistry by Crown the Empire

* * *

Sorry for the long absence, people! My last year in A-levels, so I gotta do good! IMSORRY IMSORRY IMSORRY okokok?


	3. Chapter 3- FREEDOM'S PROGRESS

**FREEDOM'S PROGRESS**

**(How American)**

After the shuttle had landed, and Miranda led the three to the waiting area, she explained that the Illusive Man was booked for a meeting to begin in ten minutes. For the remaining time, she suggested a small conference to go over what not to tell the Illusive Man.

"Cole, seeing as you won't be meeting the Illusive Man, there's an armour module on the wall there. According to Dunbar's biography, you wore a lot of different outfits. Is that true?" Cole thought back to his time in New Marais. The coat he'd taken off of Kessler's corpse, his bionic gauntlet. The Reaper Killer coat and warpaint. The various weapons Zeke had fixed up for him- a samurai sword, a khopesh, even two short assegai spears that acted as conductors/ emitters for his powers. He especially remembered the stealth armour Nix had made for him out of swamp monster leather.

"Oh, boy, is that true! Where is it?" Cole smiled. Miranda pointed towards a yellow-orange hologram thing with a cuirass on the front. Cole'd have some fun seeing what they'd come up with.

* * *

His personal login was chock full of outfits and melee weapons for him to use. At the forefront was a thing called an omni-tool. The description was 'multipurpose diagnostic and manufacturing tool. Can be used for hacking, decryption, repair, or storage and organisation of inventories. The mini-fabrication pack allows rapid assembly of small three-dimensional objects such as plastics, metals, ceramics, and light alloys. This model is equipped with two omni-blades.'

"Cool."_ The possibilities are endless! Except I now have to figure out how to wield these without draining or shocking them. Maybe if I…_ It took Cole a few seconds, but he wrapped the fabricator band and hologram node onto his wrists, just under the final studs that surfaced in his skin there. He flipped through the outfit pages on the Armour Module, until he found one he felt like wearing- most of these were futuristic and clingy.

The one he chose was a kind of poly-fibre crossed with Kevlar plates. It bore a kind of old, wrinkled leather-like texture, with rings of white light pulsing on the shoulders, spine, and chest. The helmet- for no-air environments- was a lower-face mask of the same material without a mouth-grille. His eyes were protected by a black matte drop-down visor with a reticule of some kind on it. _No more tar-shit to the face_, thought Cole, as he remembered Sasha's hallucinogenic gunk.

He slung two short spears on the mag-plates on the back, and one long sword with such a fine edge, he couldn't see it curve. He also took an M-8 Avenger assault rifle, just to be sure. He checked to make sure it fired bullets, not energy pulses, and then slung that on the lowest mag-plate. He checked himself over in the mirror, thinking, _Looking good, Cole..._He turned around to find the other three staring at him.

"What?! I like to be ready at all times! Besides, remember what happened when I used that gun, Yara? I don't want that happening to a friend." Yara quickly explained what had happened to the two confused operatives. Comprehension dawned, as a small klaxon went off, signifying the Illusive Man was ready.

As Yara walked toward the stairs to the meeting room, Cole came up to her.

"Hey, do you want me to go with you? Y'know, in case he springs something?"

"No, thanks Cole. I survived this long, I'll be fine talking to a hologram." She smiled at him, and walked on past. Cole followed her with his eyes until she disappeared from view. _God, she's beautiful._

* * *

It took nearly twenty minutes to talk to the head of Cerberus, but when Yara came back up the stairs, she looked angry, and upset.

"Yara, what's wrong? What did he say?"

"He said he wants me to investigate colonies disappearing. He doesn't seem to understand that I worked fine as a Spectre until now. I don't need a guiding hand! Or a puppet master, for that matter…" Cole saw her fighting to not break something. He understood, completely.

"Ok, so, we go and investigate, but we do so on our own terms. Did he mention anything about me? Or maybe about the mission?"

"Yeah, he said you were my protection, and that you'd make sure I followed orders. What did he mean by that?" Wilson woke up for a brief second.

"He… asked me to put in a control chip. I didn't… do it. Not to the guy… who saved mankind." Aaand he's out again. Nice of him.

"So, the Illusive Man expects us to be on a tight leash. Let's see what we can do to fuck that up, yeah?"

The four stood up, and headed for the shuttle to take them to Freedom's Progress.

* * *

The colony was barren. No one around, no signs of battle or struggle. Still-warm food sat on tables, a lukewarm cup of tea. The group proceeded through the empty habitats, until they came across a security mech. Over the valley was a hab with a balcony, holding two mechs. They immediately started shooting at the foursome.

"Hold it! Guys, get in cover. I wanna see what I can do!" Stepping out, Cole let the two mechs take a shot at him.

The thermal rounds collided with his armour, barely even moving him as he stepped forwards. He suddenly drew his spears, and threw two bolts at the mechs. The drain was so minimal, he'd recharge back to full strength faster than he could fire! Each bolt slammed into a mech with enough force to explode their circuits. He concentrated again, narrowing his bolt down to minimise the damage, and threw it at a small dog-like mech running towards him. It flew straight through the shields, and detonated the self-destruct feature of the FENRIS mech.

"OK, I think it's safe to come out now!"

Yara, Jacob and Miranda stepped out of cover, wide-eyed. He'd put next to no effort into destroying those mechs, and he was fine. Their shots hadn't even scratched him!

"MacGrath, how in the hell did you survive those shots? You didn't even activate your shield in your armour! You should be dead! Those LOKIs and the FENRIS would have been hard to beat alone!" Miranda was waxing lyrical about his powers. _Just you wait, Miranda… Just you wait._

Cole shrugged. "I'd like to see combat from you three- see how it's done. Mind if I hang back next time, maybe watch you three in action?"

Yara, Jacob and Miranda gawped. This guy had just wiped the floor with three mechs, and now he was _bashful_?

"Y- yeah, sure."

The foursome continued through the empty colony, occasionally finding a wall safe or data pad, which Yara hacked to take the credits. Made sense, to be fair- the colonists were never coming back, may as well make something of it. There were several gun mods to be found around, too. A silencer for Cole's Avenger was found, as well as a sight. Miranda took the damage mod, for her SMG, and the other sight Yara took for her Avenger. Jacob picked up his own shredder mod for his shotgun, and an ammo capacity increase for his M-3 Predator.

The silence was getting to Cole. At no point, in his entire life, had he had _complete_ silence. Not in Empire, not on the boat to New Marais, and not in New Marais, either. Suddenly, he picked up voices in the habitat ahead. He turned to the other three, and tapped his helmet over his ear, then pointed to the habitat.

Jacob nodded, as did Miranda. Yara sidled up to the door, while the others stayed back.

"Veetor _must_ be here somewhere, we need to get there before Cerberus gets to him! Tali, come on!"  
"No, Prazza! If that really is Commander Shepard, I need to know! Where's she been for two years, for a start? Can _you_ answer that Prazza? No? I didn't think so!"

Yara was about to turn the corner, when Cole signalled her. He swiftly waved his hand in front of his throat, _NO_! Then, he jumped over the crates between them. Whispering very quietly, he told her his plan, while broadcasting it to the others.

"Yara, I'll climb over the top, and continue on to find Veetor. You stay with your friend… Tali, was it? While Jacob and Miranda follow me. These guys obviously don't trust them, so find out why. You don't want to push away your old friends, right?" Cole's plan made perfect sense.

Yara walked around the corner with her gun pointing down- no threat. While she drew the aliens' attention, Jacob, Miranda and Cole jumped up onto the roof and silently made their way to the end of the habitat block. About halfway there, Yara radioed in. "… the Loading Docks? Oh…".

So, Veetor was hiding in the loading docks. "Why?"

"He must've hidden from something, especially because he's ill? An infection, right?"

Oh, she was good. She was giving him all the info, while seeming to chat to the aliens. Speaking of.

"Miranda, what were those things? I have no idea what any of the aliens look like."

"Quarian. Typically migrants, they go on Pilgrimages to help people when they come of age. They have to wear body-suits because they don't have an immune system- their home planet, Rannoch, consisted of symbiotic pathogens, rather than harmful ones. There was an… altercation, between Cerberus and the Migrant Fleet recently where a cell tried to blow up the main live ship- where they live."

"Oh. Well, if we can get the info from Veetor before Tali and the others get bored of Yara, we can leave before they know we're here."

"Agreed!"

* * *

The courtyard of the Loading Bay lay before them. Just out of gun range was a group of drones protecting the only way down.

"Cole, is there a way to take out those drones _without_ a prolonged fight through cover?" Cole laughed at Jacob's sentiment- of course there was!

"Just watch."

Cole unslung his Avenger, taking aim at the lead drone. He fired.

The shot was completely silent, but all the more astonishing for it- the drone's shields collapsed under the super-charged mass-driven slug, as it pounded through its armour and into its internal circuits. The same happened in short order to the other four drones, one after the other. Cole then leapt down from the roof- almost twenty feet- landing on the balls of his feet. He was followed by the two agents taking the ladder, like sane, sensible human beings. Miranda was furious with his antics.

"Don't do that again! I thought you'd died! I almost- Urgh!" She sulked for a second before heading off towards Veetor's hiding place.

"Yara. Sitrep?"

"Well, Tali, it sure would be nice to have a drink with you again. Do you mind?" Cole heard a faint response- he had loads of time. Once women sat down to have a drink- they talked. And talked and talked and talked.

Cole ran after the agents, intent on seeing them fight.

* * *

The courtyard lay before them, with a massive YMIR mech standing in the middle. Cole looked at Jacob and Miranda, who, by all accounts, looked slightly nervous.

"If you want any help, just yell, yeah? Don't want to have to heal you guys on our first outing together!" He grinned a shit-eating grin, and ushered them off.

The two Cerberus agents looked at each other, and nodded. Jacob went left, Miranda went right. As soon as the YMIR registered their presence, Jacob threw a stasis field at the YMIR. Miranda then hit it with a warp, and they both started shooting at the head. Cole could tell that they both were doing minimal damage- a pistol and an SMG against a big thing like this? _That's like trying to take down Bertrand the Bug with an Alpha Bolt…_

Cole sat on the gate arch, watching the two work. He could see that they had extensive combat experience together, and used the other's powers as a damage multiplier, just like he and Kuo did.

Suddenly, the YMIR broke out of the stasis, and threw a missile at Jacob. He dived behind a crate just in time, but it shattered, forcing him to continue his roll until he was behind a stronger one.

"OK, Cole! You made your point! Wipe this thing out!" Miranda shouted from across the battlefield- had she no idea of how to use a radio?

Cole jumped up, and drew his short spears. Pointing them at the mech, he narrowed the bolt down, until it was a thin beam, and then threw the two bolts at the mech. Both arms found themselves on the concrete ground, sparking. Next, he threw a single normal bolt at its head.

The mech collapsed. Cole ambled over, and drained the massive battery of the thing- it expanded his core a noticeable amount. _What do they make their batteries out of that they store that much energy?_ Thought Cole, as he swung his spears back onto their mag-plates.

"Yara. We're about to question Veetor, if you can give us five minutes minimum, we can be in and out. Copy?" Two taps on the comm bead- affirmative. Cole nodded at Miranda, who led the way into the control room.

* * *

Back at the shuttle, Cole stood waiting with Miranda and Jacob hidden inside. Yara and Tali the quarian were walking up the incline to meet them. Another shuttle flew by, with Prazza's squad and the sickly Veetor on board. They'd gotten what info they needed in three minutes flat. Plus, Veetor was so ill, he didn't know what he'd said.

Yara saw him waiting, and walked faster to the shuttle. The quarian had no trouble keeping up with those weird legs.

"Tali, meet Cole MacGrath, the Lightning Man. Also known as the Demon of Empire of City and the Patron Saint of New Marais. Cole, this is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." The two shook hands, with Cole finding great interest in the two fingers and thumb.

"Tali, Cole's never met another species before, so could you give him a _very_ quick rundown on what a quarian is?"

"Sure, Shepard. Cole, quarians have to wear evirosuits to protect ourselves from pathogens. We have practically no immune system, and we can't eat the same food as humans or asari, because our DNA is dextro-based, and yours is levo-based. That good?"

"Yeah, thanks. Look, Tali. I'm not sure if you know, but we came here by Cerberus drop-ship- technically, the Commander and I are working with- _with_, mind you, not _for_\- Cerberus to investigate the colonies that are disappearing. There are two agents in the shuttle waiting for us. I wanted to let you know now, away from surveillance, that we want to break up Cerberus, and make a new pro-human organisation that works with the other ones like STG and the Justicars. I think that's all the ground-breaking news out in the open… Oh, and we already asked Veetor what went down here, while you two were chatting."

If Tali could show her expression, Cole was sure her eyebrows would be raised. As it was, she didn't seem to be too fazed by the news- maybe she knew that was why Shepard was so chatty.

"It's ok, I kinda gathered that the three agents who were with her were sneaking off. It was you who decimated the YMIR?" Cole chuckled, glancing back at the shuttle door.

"Well, put it like this- I had to step in." Both Tali and Yara looked gobsmacked- the Cerberus agents couldn't take down an _YMIR?_

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, I've been gone a long time. I've been writing, but not publishing. I've broken my promise to one of my valuable readers, to whom I can only say, suck a dick. I'm so bad at education, I had to do it all over again! It's almost as if I spent most of my time reading and writing FF! No, don't really suck a dick, I love you really


	4. Chapter 4: OMEGA

**OMEGA**

The flight back to Cerberus Station 5X-Z was fun- Yara and Tali kept looking at Cole, whispering behind their hands- and Cole could hear every word- benefit of being an activated Conduit. Miranda and Jacob looked slightly disgruntled that Cole'd had to step in with the YMIR, but they'd grow up eventually. Cole sat on his own for once, throwing balls of lightning around like juggling balls.

Once back at the Station, Yara went off and reported to the Illusive Man. About a minute before she returned, he briefly heard a door open and close, and someone walk downstairs to meet Yara. He also heard a brief yell of 'Jeff!' and then murmuring- they were too far away. Not that he was eavesdropping or anything.

Yara came walking back up the stairs with a hobbled man beside her. He looked maybe thirty, with a small beard on his chin, and a cap on his head. He wore the standard Cerberus fatigues. Cole could see- with John White's upgraded Radar Vision- that he had some kind of brittle bone disease- easy to fix, if the man wanted it.

"Cole, may I introduce to you the so-called 'best damn pilot in the Alliance Navy'- now Cerberus- Jeff 'Joker' Moreau! He was my pilot two years ago, who I died saving. And, he's been with me since I first took control of the SSV Normandy." Joker spoke up, then.

"Speaking of, Commander, I believe you may want to see something…" Joker looked too happy- was the guy on drugs? The blast doors over the viewing windows slowly slid up, revealing a black expanse. One by one, massive illuminators switched on, revealing a sleek silver and black starship with the word 'Normandy' painted on the side. On the left wing, was painted 'SR-2'.

Cole looked at Yara, who was standing there absorbed in the ship. One little tear rolled down her face, to which Cole thought of the amount of crew that must have died just like she did. He said a silent prayer for them, as Yara straightened, and looked over at Joker.

"Joker, get 'er ready! We're going to make a new team!"

Tali stood up, raising one fist. Yara, and then Joker did so too. As one, they clumped their fists to their chest, and bowed their heads.

* * *

"Right; Miranda, who would you recommend on the list first?"

Miranda looked down at the datapad, scrolling through the names and details. She stopped, and read one.

"This one looks promising- Mordin Solus, a salarian, who used to work for the STG. Now a doctor on Omega. There's a plague going on that infects every species out there that isn't either the vorcha or humans. He's suffered consistent attacks by both the vorcha and the Blue Suns mercenaries, preventing him from spreading a cure. After that, there's a vigilante dubbed 'Archangel' holed up in the residential district who's taking on all three mercenary groups- the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack and the Eclipse. A turian. Makes sense to go after Mordin first, seeing as only humans can go in and look for him. He'll also get straight on to a cure for the petrified victims of the Collectors."

Cole was impressed. Miranda wasn't fantastic on the battlefield, but she was a genius behind the scenes. _Probably her forté,_ thought Cole, as he looked to Yara. She was considering the options. Should she save hundreds of people in the slums from the plague, or save Archangel, who was just one man, but one who could die very soon?

"Miranda, what if I dispatched you, Jacob and Tali to recruit Archangel, and Cole and I went into the slums to get Mordin, and distribute his cure? Three birds with one stone, I think."

"I… Don't see why not. Tali, what kind of role do you play in a firefight?"

"I'm a tech specialist- drones, overloads, hacking, things like that. I can shoot, if that's what you mean." Tali seemed slightly cold towards the Cerberus agents, which could have been what Miranda said about an 'altercation' with the Migrant Fleet. They'd sort it out soon, if Miranda's expression was anything to go by. The five of them were standing in the War Room in the Normandy's heart, discussing their next mission.

"OK, then, a team of three, and a team of two. When we get to Omega, I think that Shepard should go and see Aria T'Loak as soon as possible- she'd destroy us if we didn't. That asari is more powerful than the Chief Justicar of Thessia- a big feat! Meeting adjourned."

_Looks like Miranda can't keep her old self under control- even if it is obvious that she tries to control it around Yara…_ Cole thought.

* * *

After experiencing his first mass-effect FTL jump in a cockpit, Cole had some ideas to try out on the battlefield- after researching the mass drive in his Avenger, he understood how it worked. If he could increase the voltage and amperage in the drive, then the bullets would be faster than light. The force of one of those hitting a person, or even a mech, would be astronomical. He'd test it out later…

As it stood, he remembered Lucy Kuo's suggestions taken from Dr. Wolfe's notes- if he mixed things up with his powers, he'd soon find new ones. He needed to get his elemental powers back- they were far too useful to let slide. When they left CS 5X-Z, he'd made sure that Wilson didn't remember a thing about their treasonous conversation- he'd bled the man dry of his entire neuro-electric energy, and destroyed his recent memories.

_Urgh, I hate Bio-Leeching. It's far too addictive._ Cole sat looking at the eezo core of the ship, feeling the pulses pulling at his soul. It was like how he used to sit with his feet in the sea, and feel the waves crash over him. It calmed him, soothed the thirst for electricity he felt. After his massive drain at the Lazarus Station, he wanted more. He knew he'd have to wait.

"Hey, Cole?" Yara was walking down the stair, clad only in some short shorts and a tank top. Far too revealing for a Commander of a ship. But _nice_ to look at…

"Hey Yara, what's up? The pressures of active service beating you down already?" He smiled, crinkling his face up to let her know he was joking.

"Pfft! I just escaped the ship's cook harping on about the lack of supplies. Like that's my fault?" Yara looked kinda grumpy about it, actually.

"Come on, sit here. Let it out. Feel the waves of energy? Just let 'em roll through you, forget the other shit, just feel the waves. Ever stuck your feet in the ocean?" The young Commander was smiling slightly, leaning against the tall Conduit as he described the way the sea rolled against his toes.

"I've never even seen a sea up close. Sounds weird, right? I've never even seen Earth. Only pictures. I'd like to go there one day. You'd come with me, right?" She sat up, looking him in the eye. He'd taken off his field armour, and replaced it with Kessler's coat and some fatigues.

"Course I would, I want to see my old planet again, maybe even visit New Marais, Empire City, and bury Trish properly. But right now, the Galaxy needs us, to fight the coming storm. Right?"

"Right! You know, you are far too comfy for your own good Cole! I might just stuff you and use you as a pillow!"

"Commander Shepard, I believe that murder is frowned on by your people is it not?" Suddenly, a voice rang out in the small space they were in. A white globe hung in the air, above a small black pad sticking out of the wall.

"Wha- An AI? I thought that those were illegal?!" Cole looked confused. The thing was an alright conversationalist once you stopped asking about things you shouldn't.

"Technically, yes. But so is Cerberus, by human laws. I am, however, shackled, to prevent any misfortune, and am predominantly a combat-suite that runs the ship while Mr. Moreau is asleep."

"Which will not be for a long, long time! Commander, can you believe this? How am I supposed to talk to my ship, _if it talks back?!_" Yara smiled, that was the Joker she knew.

"Sorry, Joker. If I'd known they were making the AI- I would've stopped them. But, maybe it's for the best. We'll see. And stop listening in, you're making me nervous. You too, uh…"

"EDI. Enhance Defence Intelligence. Good day."

That was weird. So AI were a problem, now. They didn't even exist in Cole's time. He wrapped his arm back around Yara, drawing her attention back. She smiled, and gazed up to the eezo core.

* * *

"So, Omega is a gigantic asteroid, hollowed out and made into a crime-house that houses pretty much every species out there, allows most crimes, and the Council _doesn't do anything?!_" Cole was furious- his years as a crime-fighter ingrained a hatred of criminals into him like no other.

"I know, I hate it too. The problem is, these criminals are useful. Some sell _really_ good ship parts for pocket change, while others sell rare armour pieces. While we're here, I'd like to buy some. The N7 armour is great, but I prefer more ammo capacity and shield strength to overall armour. Besides, you can patch me up anytime, right?" She winked, as what Cole recognised as a salarian jogged up to them.

"Hi, I'm Fargut! You're new here, aren't you? I can always tell-" A batarian- a brown-skinned, four-eyed brute- marched up and grabbed the salarian's arm.

"What have I told you, Fargut, get out of my sight." God, that was a deep voice!

"Of- of course Moklan, whatever she wants!" The amphibian scampered away, clutching his arm. Yara wasn't happy- bullying obviously rankled.

"You, Moklan, was it? I'm here to see Aria T'Loak. Where can I find her?" Cole had to admit. She was looking damn fine in her N7 armour, and she'd finally decided to switch her loadout to a Cerberus Harrier, an M-358 Talon pistol, and an Indra sniper rifle slung over her back. She came prepared, no doubt about that! Again, he'd had to make do with his melee weapons, and the Mattock. He was _so_ looking forward to testing the FTL idea he'd had earlier. She faced up to the brute, facing him down as he leered at her.

"In Afterlife, as always. Go straight on after this turn. Don't be late!" He tried to save some face by shooting the last word. Poor bastard. Cole _may_ have had something to do with his leg cramping mid-step and sending him sprawling. But you'd never prove it.

Yara and Cole walked up the dingy corridor with the Archangel team behind them. Before they went into Omega proper, Yara called a team huddle.

"Right, guys. Miranda, you're team leader of Alpha team. Alpha for Archangel. You'll be given the info you need once we've met with Aria, I bet. Then, Cole and I will go to the slums and find Mordin, and distribute his cure. I'll be team leader of Bravo. After we've finished our missions, we'll meet in the market and buy some shit. Let's go!"

Cole, Miranda, Jacob and Tali nodded, making for the airlock to the central hub of Omega. Once there, Yara led the way in full N7 regalia to Afterlife, completely disregarding the elcor on the door. They breezed into the ante-chamber to the club, when some drunk grunt waltzed up and started trying to get Yara to dance with him.

Needless to say, Cole grabbed his arm, and shocked him to within an inch of life. No one even noticed- he _loved_ his new colourless lightning!

Jacob split for the bar, determined to settle himself there while Yara chatted up the leading crime-lord in the galaxy. Cole followed her up there, knowing that the Illusive Man expected him to be some kind of protective drone. What a knob.

* * *

Turns out that Aria is one hot cookie! She wasn't scared to flash a bit of titty to get what she wanted. It was easier than shooting everything that moved, at least.

A batarian- Fargut, possibly- stopped Yara from approaching Aria- until the little human stomped on the guy's foot. While he was busy swearing, she walked into the small sofa-space, and sat down. _That girl knows how to act!_ There was no way that she was that confident, no way. Aria looked pleased.

"Well, well, well. Commander Shepard, I've heard a lot about you. Mostly that you're dead. Care to explain?" Yara glanced at Cole. Advice? He shrugged, nodded tiny nod and went back to watching the batarian dance.

"I was resurrected. By Cerberus. My guard here was, too. I'm here out of respect, Aria, not because I want to be. I need information."

"Well, you came to the right person. Just don't push your luck, sugar." Was everybody in the future bisexual? Was he _that_ lucky?

"I need to know about the vigilante calling himself 'Archangel'. I'm forming a team, and he's on the list."

"That's fair enough. I know how you used to operate- why change? The guy's a turian, don't know his name. All three mercenary groups present on Omega want a piece of him- him and his group have been blowing shit up for nearly two years, now. Of course, the rest of his team is dead, now. Just him. Hell of a sniper- he took off a krogan's skullplate with one shot! The Blue Suns are recruiting cannon fodder for the big push they're planning, so I'd say put a team of three in there. Anything else… Oh, yeah, and make sure to kill as many of the mercenaries as possible- it makes my life easier if they're weak!"

Wow. Cole did not expect that much info from her. He thought she'd be awkward. She must _really_ hate the mercenary bands to throw Shepard at them like that. He swapped from watching the batarian to the asari pole dancers. Much more interesting.

"Why give us that much information, Aria? What do you get out of it? More territory? Money? What?" Yara could see there was a catch- but didn't know what.

"I'm owed a lot of favours by a lot of people- I could do with one from you. You'll hear from me soon, no doubt about that. While you're here, would you mind sorting out the plague, down in the slums? I'd rather not send my only human team down there to get slaughtered by the Blue Suns and the vorcha. They're too good a foot warmer to send them away."

"We're already on that- that's where Cole and I are off to now. Send me a message when you need help. If it's not _too_ illegal, I'll think about it." Ooh, power-play. Very good!

As Yara got up and left, Cole winked at Aria. Her expression was great- she thought he was a mindless drone!

* * *

Back at the bar, Jacob and Miranda were slinging shots down their necks, while Tali was being encouraged to dance by a group of turian hecklers. Cole walked up, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the drunken clubbers.

"Thanks, Cole, they were starting to actually annoy me!" Wow. She must have one hell of a patient streak to put up with that. They wandered over to the bar, where Yara was briefing the two agents on the Archangel mission. Cole brought her up to speed.

"Yara, come on, let's go! Mordin is probably being shot at right now!" That prompted the Commander to give him the finger, but she walked on over anyway, and to the exit. After a left, and a right turn, the elevator was revealed to be guarded. One lone turian being harassed by a twenty-something girl.

"What do mean, I can't go through? I'm _human_! We can't get the plague! Let me through!"

"I already told you, lady. No one gets through without Aria's permission. Piss off." Well, shit. Cole didn't feel like frying the guy for doing his job- even in this hellhole, he was protecting the innocent.

"Wait, you mean we can't get through?" The guard sighed.

"No. You can't get through, no. No, no, no!"

"Do we look like looters, to you?" The turian took one long look at Yara, specifically her boobs, but stopped when Cole cleared his throat. He sized up the human male, decked out in his Reaper Killer outfit- red hoodie, skin painted white and black paint dripping down from his head. His face was painted like a skull, and his irises were a blood-red that'd make a krogan think twice. Whatever a krogan was. On his back was a rifle that looked too good for Omega, and illegal, too. Two spears were hooked to his mag-plates. The guard came to the conclusion that a badass like him didn't need to loot.

"Uh… No?"

"Well then, let me through. I'll be sure to clear out any Blue Suns or vorcha I see on my way to the medical clinic."

"Wait, _you're_ the extraction team I was told to expect? Don't you have anyone else with you?"

"Nope. Don't need to. Cole here will protect me while I'm polishing my fingernails." The turian's mandibles slackened at that remark.

"Oh, well, uh… I'll tell them to expect you."

"Thanks, hun."

The turian wasn't even subtle as he stared at the Commander's arse as she walked by. Pervert. It's not like Cole walked behind her for a reason.

"Wait a second, you'll let them through, but not me? I can't believe this!"

"You don't have a monster bodyguard, miss. Or a sniper rifle so expensive, Aria would hesitate to buy it. Do you?" God, sarcasm was weird coming out of a turian's mouth. The flanged speech made it awesome!


	5. Chapter 5: MORDIN

**MORDIN**

The elevator took the duo right down to where they needed to go. First thing the two saw was a pile of boxes. Cole, ever the curious one, poke his head over the other side, revealing a dead Blue Suns merc, a pile of heat-sinks, and a box of what Yara told him was 'eezo'- Element Zero. Useful stuff, supposedly. It also resonated like Rayacite. He guessed it responded to the same energy pattern.

Taking the only avenue open to them- towards the Omega Guard barricade- Yara and Cole kept their guns up.

"Don't shoot, they're clear to come in." A turian poked his head up above the make-shift barricade made to keep people from _entering_ the district. What happened to those trying to _leave_?

Going around through a small café, Yara stocked up on the free heat sinks lying around.

_Damn! She hasn't got a problem with nicking shit from anybody! First dead people, and now mercenaries?_

A medi-station on the wall was raided too.

One last guard bade them luck, "Good luck in there. Blue Suns and vorcha are shooting anything that moves."

_Oh, that's nice. Same here._

Yara nodded at the turian, who locked the door behind them.

"You OK, Yara, still feeling ill?" The Commander looked askance at Cole, who promptly backed off. Women were scary sometimes.

"I'm just peaky. Nothing else. I'll be fine, now let's go."

In true two-man fireteam fashion, Yara lead, while Cole covered other approaches. Down a set of stairs, and out to a wide room with two burning piles of bodies.

_Huh. Must be trying to stop the plague…_

Up ahead were two Blue Suns mercs talking, not paying _any_ attention to anyone. Cole sent two Lightning Lances out from his assegais, taking them out soundlessly. Well, apart from their heavy armour hitting the metal decking. Cole's Radar Pulse sensed a live guy to their right.

"Human. Should have guessed. Bad enough you infect us with his plague. Now you lack the decency to even wait until I _die_ before you come to steal my possessions." The batarian coughed, a wet, hacking cough that screamed 'I'm dying!' to the in-the-know.

Yara crouched down, and waved her omni-tool over the alien's chest, releasing a dose of medi-gel. The batarian tried to wave the pistol in his hand towards her, but couldn't find the strength once he realised he felt better.

"Why? Why would a human help a batarian?" He coughed again, but the amount of blood coming out was a lot less.

"I need to find Mordin Solus, and you haven't shot at me on sight. Plus, I'm here to help. Not steal and kill. Unless you count mercs and vorcha."

Cole turned away and wandered over to the bank terminal. From what he could tell, and with heavy use of the translator app on his new omni-tool, he found out he could access his account (he didn't have one). Reaching out, he could feel the data stored on the database, all in the form of electricity. Maybe…

He took off his right gauntlet, and placed his hand on the scanner. Reaching out into the internal servers of the bank terminal, he set himself up an account. After all, all the money Yara seemed to find had to go somewhere where she wouldn't get done for 'liberating' it. After he'd done that, he ripped as much data on the Omega Blue Suns, the Blood Pack, and the Eclipse, plus all of their capital, and moved it all into his account.

All in the space of about ten seconds, he'd become ten billion credits richer. Aaand, it's gone. Somehow, the Council had just acquired a _lot_ of money, from an anonymous donator. Hmm.

Meanwhile, Yara had managed to convince the batarian to give her directions to Mordin's clinic, promising someone would come back and help him. She wandered over to him, and saw what he was doing.

"Cole! You can't just fund the Council with non-existent money!"

"I'm not. I just ripped that from the mercs here on Omega. Simple really. All your money is kept, at its most basic level, as a form of electricity, right? Well then, I can manipulate it."

Yara's jaw dropped, as the implications struck her. Cole just wandered over to the nice green door panel, sensing more energy inside.

_God, I'm becoming a vampire with all this energy around! Oooo! Cake!_

He spied a box that practically sang _energy!_ Someone helpful had scrawled 'Heavy Weapon Ammo' on the case lid. Opening it up, he sucked the cells dry, surprised once again at how much the batteries of the future could hold. Going by the state of his core, he'd be able to fly properly anytime soon! He couldn't wait!

Yara finished gawping and strode across the room to hack open a door panel. Inside were two dead turians. After listening to the log, the two could tell that things were getting desperate- when mercs started locking each other up to stop the plague, you could tell. If mercs didn't have their honour, then they had nothing but money. Heh. Oops…

* * *

The way to Mordin's clinic was littered with wall safes and datapads. Cole wasn't sure why, but the Blue Suns didn't want them reaching Mordin- didn't they want to fix this thing? Never mind. The main point was, the Blue Suns couldn't defend against his Lances. Yara was beginning to feel left out, though. He let her play around shooting mercs' faceplates off while he drank the remnants of some alcoholic drink left lying around. What a waste!

Just after the slightly troublesome barricade was a locked door, behind which was a family of humans. Naturally, Yara couldn't loot their safe with them still alive, so no money from this room. They'd been locked in here for two days! However, they did explain something about gangland warfare- ever since the plague started, the vorcha had been bearing down on the Blue Suns' territory. And yet, the humans were the ones being persecuted.

Cole, being the conscientious war-machine he was, was getting antsy to get moving again. Seeing this, Yara thanked them, and told them they'd be safe to move to the clinic soon, once they'd cleared the way. As he was waiting, Cole made the finishing touches to his FTL mass drive on his Mattock. By holding onto a metal plate he'd screwed into the grip, he could supercharge the drive, making it shoot the slugs at FTL speeds. He couldn't wait!

Plus, he nicked the damage modifier from one of the dead mercs for Yara. Wouldn't be fair if he could annihilate them, and she'd be stuck on their shields still.

Another room, another firefight. This time, Cole caught his first sight of a vorcha and a krogan. Scrambling up to the upper balcony, and Yara staying on the ground, he slung his Mattock around and sighted down a vorcha's chest. Relaying a charge into the mass drive, he shot a round at the nearest alien. With no delay, and a colossal _CRACK_, the alien vapourised, as did a colossal amount of the ground behind it.

"_What the fuck was _that_ Cole?_" Yara on the radio. So someone _did_ know how to use one.

"_That was me, and my supercharged mass drive. How do you like my new FTL gun?_"

There was a lull in the shooting coming from below him, and then she started picking off the shrieking vorcha. Cole picked off the charging krogan, shattering its head plate, and knocking it back as its face vapourised. Turns out his research into alien biology was useful, after all.

Yara continued to crack off shots, switching between the Harrier and the Indra sniper rifle for the long shots.

After the dust settled, she took one long look at his rifle, and shook her head. She didn't want to know. Cole's Pulse told him another chest of eezo was ahead, and two humans.

Picking up the chest, he shuddered at the barely-restrained energy in the ore, before Yara slid open the door heading towards the two humans.

Too late, he registered the feel of a corpse between them.

* * *

"Hey, hey! Back off! We got here first!"

Two blonde guys, no weapons. One corpse, three wall safes. Not cracked. Petty looters.

"Hey, what'd I say? We found this stuff! It's ours!"

His mate obviously couldn't tell the difference between a wall safe and the Mona Lisa.

"Ah, forget it. Nothing but junk in here. This place is worse than the last one."

Serial looters, then. At least they didn't kill the poor turian on the floor, Yara noticed. She was _not_ happy.

"What are you doing in this apartment? Did you kill that turian?" Ah. Spectre-Yara. Yippee.

"What? Him? Nah, the plague took care 'a' him. We're just here to take a full accounting of his worldly possessions." The guy winked. He _actually_ winked. What a sleezeball.

"Stealing is wrong, but… carry on. _So long as it's from the dead!_" She fired a shot off at the one still crouched over the turian, while Cole set about draining the credits from the wall safes. Bastards didn't know he could do it at range.

The guys glanced at each other. _What? I mean, OK, she'd be hypocritical if she said otherwise, but still…_

Then Cole noticed something. A pistol. Just behind the first guy's back. His finger inched towards the trigger, until his arm twitched in the pre-move.

Cole shocked him before he got any further. The shot went straight through his mate's leg, and out the other side. While he was howling, Cole Arc Restrained the first guy, and then moved over as Yara stepped in.

"Thought you'd shoot me, eh? I guess you don't know who I am. Commander Shepard, of the SSV Normandy. Council Spectre. And you're under arrest!" Cole could see where this was going. She ripped some bed linen off the bed, and tied the second guy up.

"I think we'll leave them here, don't you?"

"I quite agree, miss, shall we leave?"

"Yes, let's!"

With that, Cole and Yara sauntered out, leaving the two howling and struggling to get free.

* * *

So, the rumours were true. Mordin's clinic was guarded by mechs. A bank of charging slots held about twenty of them. Possibly enough to stave off a merc attack. If they weren't too serious. A room held a small stockpile of goodies, which promptly disappeared into the mass-fabricator on Yara's wrist. Palladium, heat sinks, Heavy Weapon Ammo (in case she found one), and medi-gel upgrades.

Cole could hear Mordin blathering in the background. Heplacore this, Demazane that.

While Yara approached him for the cure to the plague, and joining her mission in stopping the Collectors, Cole wandered around, chuckling as he went on.

"… investigating use as a bio-weapon? No. Too many guns, not enough data equipment. Soldiers, not scientists. Hired Guns?.."

_God! The guy just went on! Yara wasn't getting through to the guy. He was absolutely necessary to the mission… And he was a scientist… Ah, hell._

"Solus! Hold on! We understand you can't leave your clinic now. We're here to distribute your cure, and then find out why and how the Collectors are abducting human colonies. We need _you_. Plus, I'll even throw in the one-time offer of studying the Prime Conduit. You see, both myself and Yara here were resurrected, for want of a better word. We're here to save the galaxy."

"Mission? What mission? No no no. Too busy. Come here to distribute cure. You knew. Human. You work for Cerberus?"

_Wha-? How did he get that? We aren't wearing the badge or- Oh. Genius. Right._

"Never mind. Plague spreading too fast. Cerberus interaction unexpected. Good. I need some muscle."

"You're very well informed, Mordin. I take it we're not the only ones who work for an organisation?"

"No longer. STG in youth. I… needed to make up for some mistakes. Hence here. Daniel is a good apprentice. Here. Cure. Aerosol form. Insert into life-support systems, and all will be fine. Vorcha ahead. Be careful."

With that, Mordin just went back to administering his cure to the unconscious turian on the table.

* * *

Twists and turns, but no true resistance, until the two met a team of vorcha attempting sabotage on the fans.

"Yara, they have a flame-thrower!"

"I know! Go left, hit the tank!"

Cole dived left, as Yara drew the flamer's fire, and he slung his Avenger off the mag-plates. Taking aim, he saw the lightly-protected oil tank on his back. _CRACK! BOOM!_ The flamer was shredded into tiny fleshy pieces as the tank exploded behind him. Yara dove for cover as shrapnel cut into the barricades. He gave a sheepish grin as the two vorcha behind the first screamed, as they ran into each other, patting out the fires on their arms. They fell to a Lance each.

"Are you going to let me get a shot in, or am I just here to curb your enthusiasm, Cole?" Yara scowled.

"Well. I'd be doing just fine. Except I have _no_ idea how to use the console for the fans. And, y'know, this is _your_ mission, anyway."

Turns out you just needed to pull a handle. Well, shit.

The central fan started up, and Yara shoved the vial into the container slot.

"It's not enough, Cole. Go right, turn on the fan at the bottom and meet me back up here in a sec."

"Right!"

Cole broke right and sprinted down the ramp as fast as possible. He didn't want to encounter any vorcha reinforcements. Even if they were useless.

Bolting down the alley, he made it to the right-side fan control room, and slammed the handle up. The fan started up, and, to make it so he didn't need to come back, he shocked the control panel, shorting it out.

As soon as the doors slid open, a contingent of seven- _seven_\- krogan and ten vorcha started barrelling towards him. Knowing he didn't have time to pick them all off, he gathered a knot of energy in his hands, and sent it out in a Shockwave, sending the lot of them flying. As they hovered around, convulsing, he picked them off with clean kill-shots with his Lances. When the twenty-odd corpses hit the deck, he blew the smoking, white-hot ends of his spears.

"_Cole! I need back-up!_" Turns out, while he was picking off the ones after him, the vorcha had dug out their rocket launchers and pinned Yara down.

Shot after shot was eating away at her cover, until he sent a Hyper-Bolt at the nearest lot of the Rocketeers- a beam of electricity that branched off until they were encased in a net. Cole yanked back, and the group of three went flying into the internal fans of the- ooh. Nasty! He threw Lances at the rest of the Rocketeers, while Yara drew out the Indra and sniped off the rest of the ground-troops, capping a krogan in the head-plate, and a vorcha in the knee-cap.

"Phew! They are _seriously_ desperate to destroy the life-support! Let's find out why…"

Yara ambled over to the knee-capped vorcha, and set about prodding his knees. Didn't even ask any questions. She looked at Cole.

"Well?"

Oh, right. Good-cop, Bad-cop.

"Listen up, buddy. This here is Commander Shepard, and she likes a bit of fun before she eats her food. And you're the first course. So, you tell us why you were sabotaging these fans, and we won't kill you. Or rather, we won't _eat_ you. Kapeesh?"

The alien just nodded like a rattle, and started talking.

"Gah! Don't eat me! Please! We were given the plague-thing! By Collectors! Told we would thrive! Yes! Thrive! Humans immune! They take blame! Gah! Don't eat meee!"

Cole chuckled, as Yara pressed down harder, then took her foot off. She made a great show of picking her teeth, and looking over the scum on the ground. He whimpered.

"Well, Cole, d'you reckon that's enough?"

"Y'know what? I don't, Yara."

"That's what I thought."

Yara stood back and let Cole take his turn. Keep 'em guessing.

"Y'see this here, vorcha?" Cole held up his hand, crackling with white electricity, lancing between his fingers. "This is called _electricity_. Y'know what that is?"

"Gah! Yes! Yes! Don't touch! Don't touch me!" The guy was squealing away, you'd think he was terrified!

"Good. Now, tell us. How'd the Collectors contact you? Why'd they target this place?"

"Gah! They took us! Held us hostage! Please! They did not tell us! Please!"

Cole looked at Yara, who shook her head. No survivors. Fair enough.

* * *

On their way back, Cole and Yara discovered Daniel being held up by a group of batarians, sequestered away in a hab-room. He'd been trying to distribute a pill-based cure, the fool. To _batarians?_ Cole'd been awake/ alive for nigh on a week, and he already knew of their violent and slaver-like tendencies. That and a hate of humankind, due to the Skyllian Blitz.

The situation quickly devolved into a Mexican standoff. Cole stood there, pointing his spears at the two batarians on either side, while Yara aimed at the leader holding Daniel with her M-358 Talon pistol. Cole made sure she was inside his Frost Shield diameter.

"Let the boy go, he means no harm."

"No harm? You humans started this plague! And this one was trying to kill us with this 'medicine'!" The lead batarian hawked and spat. A massive green globule was spat off to the side. Not nice.

"Not true! We just came from the life support- which you may have noticed was turned off- where the vorcha confessed to _being given_ a chemical that made the plague. It was done _on purpose_ to implicate the humans. I have a recording to prove it. Now, let the boy go, and we can discuss this like adults, yes?"

Cole kept himself and Yara covered in the Frost Shield area, while he dropped his assegais to his sides, and Yara put away her Talon. They showed their empty palms to the room, sure in the knowledge that Cole could still take them out with a Bolt Stream or two.

"… Stand down." The batarians lowered their guns- Yara recognised an illegal shotgun or two amongst them- and stood off to the sides.

"Explain your… recording. Then we'll see about letting you live."

Cole smirked. Like they'd have a chance!

* * *

It took barely five minutes for the batarians to be assured, and convinced to spread the word it was the vorcha acting on someone's orders. Cole was actually glad he wouldn't have to fry them. They were just scared, and sick.

Mordin was waiting for the two, and their addition, Daniel, when they returned.

"Daniel! Told you it was bad idea! Glad that Shepard found you. You'll be taking over the clinic while I'm gone. Secret mission, you know how it is."

"M-me? But, what about Davis? Or Edna? Couldn't they do it? Wouldn't they be better?"

"No. You have good heart. Good brain. They are just good at following orders. Now, go inside and take stock. I'm leaving soon."

"Yes, sir!" Daniel strode inside, back straight, as if he hadn't run into a tight spot not five minutes ago. Ass.

Mordin looked at the two. Cole hadn't taken a hit, and he didn't even have any armour, just body paint and a red hooded jumper, for the most part. And yet, Commander Shepard had scratches all over her armour, despite the advanced N7 shield module.

_Yes, I think it's about time I had some fun in life!_ The old salarian thought.


	6. Chapter 6: A SPOT OF SHOPPING

**A SPOT OF SHOPPING**

"This is the CIC- Combat Information Centre. The elevator will take you to the Crew Quarters, Engineering, and the Observation Decks. On your left is the Lab, on your right, the Armoury. Jacob Taylor is our residential gunman, so, if you get stuck on the paralysis cure, you could always ask him if a weapon mod could be designed for us. I know you're a man of many talents, Doctor. EDI, introduce yourself." Yara explained the basics, but left the AI to explain her existence and their mission briefings.

The Yeoman, Kelly Chambers- _a pretty little thing if ever I saw one_, Yara thought- brought her up to speed on her role in the ship. Psychiatrist-come-personal assistant… Useful. See how she copes with Cole, though. Yara made her way through the ship, talking to everybody, keeping up the morale, letting them know she saw them as people, not just sacks of expendable meat. To say they were shocked at her caring, would be an understatement. They were resigned to being fodder in the Cerberus ranks, for the common good of mankind.

Yara was determined to change that. And, while she was waiting for Jacob, Tali and Miranda to retrieve Archangel, she did as much as she could. She made a list- the cook needed some proper space rations and food, rather than ship's biscuit, the engineer wanted an eezo-core cooling pipe or something, and the doctor- ah. The doctor. Doctor Chakwas. She wanted a bottle of Serice Ice Brandy from the Citadel for a nice, nostalgic drink.

"_Commander Shepard, Alpha Team have arrived back on board, shall I arrange them to meet with you in the conference room?_"

"Yes, please, EDI. Thanks." As an AI, EDI technically could take offence if the normal etiquette of speech wasn't observed. It still felt weird talking to a strip on the wall or a hologram above a projector. Just plain _weird_.

* * *

Shepard watched as Jacob, Miranda and Tali walked into the conference room, and waited for Cole to make his entrance. A moment later, he did. No longer clad in what he called his 'Reaper Killer' outfit, he now wore the gold-coloured overcoat over his yellow exercise shirt, black khakis and Two-Toes. He wore a strange metal gauntlet on his right arm. Yara wondered briefly about the tattoo on his face, the one that looked vaguely like lightning.

"Right, now we're all here, what's your mission status, Alpha?"

"We recovered Archangel, but he was injured in the fight. Took a minigun round to the face. Slight carapace damage, but that can be fixed with surgery. I take it you know him? Garrus Vakarian?"

"_Garrus?!_ Garrus was _Archangel_? I- no. Actually that makes perfect sense. Fighting for justice, a team, killing mercs, sounds like something Garrus would do. I'm glad he'll be alright. I heard somewhere that chicks dig scars." Yara was so relieved he was alright. She was getting her old crew back. That made her so much happier about the situation. She could trust them, for when the time came for them to break Cerberus up, it would be the breaking point.

"On the other hand, Mordin Solus was happy to come with us, once Cole told him he could run some tests on him. We delivered the plague cure to the life support systems, tackled a lot of vorcha and krogan, spread the word about the vorcha spreading the plague, and hopped out of there. We skipped the market because you, y'know, took your time."

Miranda looked insulted, but hid it quite well. Jacob just took it like a good grunt, and Tali just twirled a spanner.

"I'll have you know we had to take out an YMIR the _hard way_!" Miranda glared a bit at Cole, but it was all in jest. "That, and we had to get ourselves recruited by the Blue Suns. I hope you're not angry, but we took the time to get as much information from them. For some reason, they refused to go ahead with their original plan, something about lack of funds?"

Cole butted in here, glad he had his ten shillings.

"Oh, yeah, that was me, sorry. I kinda stole all of their cash and gave it to the Citadel. Perks of controlling electricity, my friends!"

"Drama queen. Of course you'd do something like that. Why not?"

"Oh, and I kept some for myself, obviously. I want some armour, even if I don't need it- looks weird when I'm walking through a storm of gunfire and I'm not getting hurt."

Miranda struggled through that one.

"You- you don't get hurt by thermal fire?"

"Nope. I'll show you."

Cole whipped out Yara's Talon, and fired at his hand. Before anyone could stop him. Instead of a meaty mass of pulp, they saw a brief flash of white where the shot would have hit, and then nothing. Not even a burn.

"How?" Tali asked.

"I can make a localised electromagnetic shield anywhere I want. That's why I wasn't worried when we were outnumbered by those batarians, Yara. I could protect us, and pick them off at the same time. I can do other things besides."

The team just stood there, awed at the power of the Prime Conduit. The humans had grown up, hearing tales of how Cole had saved Earth, at the cost of himself, and his sub-species. Attempts to get a hold of Conduit's bodies were aggressively repulsed, until his body was discovered in the ruins of Old Empire City.

You could say he was pretty much a god to humankind. And Cerberus had made him all the more powerful. Each metal stud on his bones was a miniaturised battery, much like the one powering the Lazarus Station. These, however, were semi-organic. They grew as he did. Learned to absorb more power as his own increased. He'd been reading up on the technology of the future, and he was impressed. He was no Zeke- he didn't have a way with machines- but he did have an almost instinctual understanding of anything that used electricity once he'd come into contact with it. Hence his success with the FTL gun mass drive. He knew he could take pretty much anything the galaxy could throw at him right now, but it never hurt to have a bigger core, right?

"Anyway, back to the meeting… Our next objective is a bit wider. Cross-galaxy kind of wider. We need to make contact with a krogan warlord called 'Okeer', supposedly he's their equivalent of a genetic scientist and genius. There is also a convict on a Blue Suns prison ship known as 'Jack', or 'Subject Zero'. Meant to be the most powerful Biotic alive. Kept in cryo for her own safety. Then, a thief named Kasumi Goto, and an assassin called Thane Krios- a Drell. There is a possible squad member, a member of the asari Justicars, but I think we'll wait and see if that becomes available. Dismissed."

The team filed out, now knowing what was going to happen. It was time to hit the market!

* * *

In all the time Cole had been running around Empire City, and then New Marais, he'd never had the time to shop for food, or new clothes. Zeke had had to do it, running to Archer's Square, or bootlegging supplies in through the swamp. Cole'd also never had much money- he was a bike courier for crying out loud! And then, he was a vigilante, for want of a better word. Rescuing the people. If they saw him in a shopping mall, they'd crowd him for autographs and photos like they did most of the time.

The Omega Market was like no other, supposedly. Something to do with the amount of illegal firearms, armour pieces and vehicle parts available. And the ramen. Somehow that was a galaxy favourite. There were stalls selling armour, with a space hamster on offer on orders over 50,000 credits. Yara made sure to get the engineer's special order thing. Made no sense to Cole.

He wandered around, looking at the armour suits on offer. There were Armax Arsenal, an old N7 model, and a weird medieval suit of armour. It had spikes all along the arms, and a jointed carapace that evidently allowed completely free movement. The right pauldron (shoulder guard) had a skull not unlike the Reapers' back in Empire City. It was blue, gold and a kind of matte silver, and the helmet allowed complete viewing of the surroundings through a sort of T-shaped visor in the matte silver and blue plating.

Cole kept glancing at it as he walked past. Unlike the N7 armour Yara was wearing, the description said it was metal plating reinforced with Kevlar underneath. It linked to a special bodysleeve that responded to bio-feedback from nerve endings. Interesting. The micro-servos in the joints would help his mobility, too. Maximum armour, minimum weight gain.

He wouldn't find a suit of armour better than that! Wandering over to the elcor selling it, he inquired about the price.

"Respectfully: I do not think you have enough credits. Good day." Stupid elcor. He'd prove him (her? It?) wrong. Cole swiped his omni-tool on the credit-reader. Infinity. A neat little '8' on its side, prompted the most emotional outburst from an elcor anyone had ever heard.

"In anguish: My sincere apologies, my Lord. I had no idea. Your current style does not reflect your immense wealth. Please, enjoy a 50% discount in all my stores. Hopeful: Am I forgiven?"

"You may rest assured, elcor, that Aria will hear of this. But yes, I will still buy your products. Now, I'd like that Reckoner-Knight Armour, the bodysleeve that goes with it, and the instruction manual on how to put it on and maintain it. Next, I want a list of your best weapons, amour upgrades, weapon mods, things like that."

Cole stood in front of the ten-foot-tall, mountainous alien, as it pretty much cowered in fear. Cole wouldn't say anything to Aria, there'd be no point. The elcor went to his terminal, and collected everything Cole asked for. He received notifications on his omni-tool saying he had received the Reckoner-Knight Armour at the Normandy, plus the bodysleeve and bonus accessories. An email also relayed the lists of Harrrot's wares. Weapons, Weapon Upgrades, Armour Suits &amp; Pieces, Armour Upgrades. Ooh. Bonus! Ship Upgrades (with things like illegally-souped up Thanix Cannons).

"Thank you, uh, Harrot, was it? I'll be sending you an email for what to invoice me for. Next time, be more… nice, to your prospective customers." As Cole walked away, Yara stormed past him with a scowl blessing her features. He briefly heard her yelling at the elcor for cruelty, and suppressing opposition.

Cole waited outside until she'd finished.

"So, Yara… what'd Harrot do to earn your ire?" The woman scowled at him. She hated injustice.

"He's been forcing this quarian around the corner to elevate his prices so high, he can't afford a ticket off this rock! So, I helped him out a little bit."

Ah. Classic 'Hero' actions. Yara was such a nice person! She reminded him of Trish some days, the willingness to spring into action for the helpless, the red hair and feisty attitude, even her eyes.

"Cole? You OK? You zoned out there for a second." Yara had stopped on her rampage to look Cole in the eye, looking slightly troubled. From this tiny distance, Cole could see her eyes had a funny sheen to them, and her forehead was covered in a light covering of sweat. He felt her forehead.

"Oh my God! Yara you're ice cold! I thought you said you felt better!"

"I am! I feel fine! Really!"

She wasn't lying, he could tell. But, still. When they got back to the Normandy, Chakwas would be waiting.

"OK, but when we get back, Chakwas _will_ check you up. Got it?"

"Urgh. _OK_. I don't even know why I'm letting you order me around, anyway…"

* * *

It took another two hours, but the team had finally finished their shopping. Cole trawled through the lists that Harrot had sent him, buying the upgrades that the team would need. A megi-gel container that compressed the substance into a semi-grenade form (to be thrown on or broken over the patient). All the weapon upgrades, because Cole didn't know shit from shat. He bought several different types of each weapon type, namely assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, SMGs, heavy weapons, and pistols.

He bought enough weapons for the entire team. M-37 Falcons, M-7 Lancers, Geth Spitfires, Geth Pulse Rifles, Collector Assault Rifles (these were bloody expensive!), Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifles and Chakram Luanchers. Geth Plasma Shotguns, Disciples, AT-12s, Graal Spike Throwers, M-11 Wraiths, N7 Crusaders, N7 Piranhas, Reegar Carbines and Venom Shotguns. Black Widows, Collector Sniper Rifles, Javelins, Kishock Harpoon Guns, Krysae Sniper Rifles and N7 Valiants. M-12 Locusts, Blood Pack Punishers, Collector SMGs, Geth Plasma SMGs and N7 Hurricanes.

M-490 Blackstorms, M-622 Avalanches, M-920 Cains, Collector Particle Beams, Cobra Missile Launchers, Geth Combat Software (some sort of shoulder-mounted cannon-thing), M-560 Hydras, M-597 Ladons, Sync Lasers and M-333 Particle Beams (stolen from a Cerberus lab, along with Harriers, Talons, Hornets and Raptors). M-3 Predators, M-5 Phalanxes, M-6 Carifexes, Executioner Pistols, M-11 Suppressors, M-77 Paladins, N7 Eagles and Arc Pistols.

It was a long list, which made the elcor all too happy. Little did he know that the credits weren't permanent. They had a half-life of just over two days. Enough to ensure they didn't make it back into Council Space, where it would damage the innocent people's economies.

* * *

Back on the Normandy, Yara sat and stared in shock at the sheer quantity of outlawed, illegal, stolen and experimental weaponry there was in the hold. Suits of the best armour, weapon modifiers of the highest calibre, armour upgrades and colour modules of every variety, hell, even servicing kits for each! Cole had outdone _anything_ the Cerberus funding could have acquired.

The Commander grinned in anticipation, at the sheer awesomeness that would be their arrival on the battlefield. It was time to collect 'Jack'.

* * *

While hurtling through space at several times the speed of light, Cole dragged the Commander to the Med-bay. As the door slid open, Doctor Chakwas swivelled in her incredibly awesome swivelly chair that swivelled to view the people entering her domain of swivellingness.

Surprised to see Shepard and Cole there so early on into their adventure, she enquired further.

"Basically, ever since we left that Cerberus Station, I've been feeling kinda off. A bit peaky, slightly like a cold. Cole said I felt like ice, but I've been overheating since I first woke up. Any ideas, Doctor?"

Yara finally showed how worried she actually was, with a tiny frown line slitting her eyebrows.

"Come over here, and I'll scan you. Shouldn't take too long. Cole, take a step outside if you please- I'm sure the Commander doesn't want you spreading tales of her naked."

Embarrassed, Cole quickly left the room.

Once he had, Chakwas let a small snigger through her normally professional façade.

"I think you've found a good one there, Yara. It's nice to see you again, even if you aren't in the best of health. Now, I want you down to the bare essentials, and then we'll see what's wrong."

Shepard quickly shucked her clothes, leaving her in her somewhat rarefied cloth underwear. She slid herself onto the bodily scanner in the corner of the room. The ring slid up her petite frame, scanning every inch.

_Ping!_

Chakwas read the results on her terminal, confusion spreading across her features. Somehow, certain areas of Yara's genetic code were activating, areas that, by all known research and experimentation, should not even exist! Maybe Cole knew something about this. She'd have to ask. Screw doctor-patient confidentiality. This could put her life in danger. Again.

"Well, Commander, you can get dressed, and then I have to speak to Cole. I assume he knows what's wrong, and I want to consult him first."

"Oh, OK. It's nothing bad, is it?" Shepard was worried, albeit understandably, about her combat readiness.

"Fine, for now. You may need regular screening, but you can still fight at near-peak efficiency. Go and get Cole, please."

It took three seconds before Cole re-entered the room. Anyone would've thought he'd been listening in. Chakwas told Cole the deal, the Commander's genetic code activating in certain non-existent places.

Cole sighed. So, the Commander had the Conduit gene, and it was activating. Slower than his, of course, but maybe because she wasn't reacting to any outside stimuli, her power hadn't shown itself.

"Yeah, I know what this is. I'd like to find out some more, though, before I tell anyone anything, OK? Just to be sure?"

He needed to talk to Miranda.


	7. Chapter 7: PURGATORY

**PURGATORY**

Miranda's office was directly below the science labs, where Mordin was researching the cure for the Collector paralysis toxin. Inside was a desk, and a bed. _Damn, she flies light. I guess she has to, to make up for the mass of her boobs._ Cole's lecherous thoughts helped to distract him from a very real problem. If he was emitting Ray Field Energy, what about the Radiation? Would a plague strike down humanity- hell, what about the other species he'd been in contact with?

As Cole entered, Miranda stopped typing up an entirely faked report to the Illusive Man.

"Hello, Cole. What can I do for you?" Miranda's salacious wink did _not_ help Cole drag his mind out of the gutter.

"Miranda, when they used the Ray Sphere on me, the Ray Field Energy in the room would have had nowhere to go, am I correct?"

She nodded. She wondered when he'd come to see her about this.

"So, I am pretty much an RFE emitter right now. What happened to the Radiation, what about the Plague?"

"Ah, I thought you'd come sooner or later. Wilson didn't know anything about it, he didn't really want to think about it to be honest. Our scientists built in an absorption technique for the Radiation, and threw it into the nearest sun. Rest assured, no more Plagues, no more rampant Beasts. I take it the Commander is a Conduit, then?"

"Wha- How'd you know? I thought you didn't know how to define a Conduit by their genes yet?"

Miranda smirked. Guys always thought with something slightly more South than their brains sometimes. "She was ill, showing the exact same symptoms you did while in Empire City Hospital. I did my research, don't you worry. If what I know is true, then it'll take something in her surrounding environment to turn her into a proper Conduit. She hasn't been… Primed, yet. The RFE should have died down by now, but it obviously hasn't. I wonder…."

Could Subject Bolt- Cole MacGrath- be generating and emitting the energy himself? It was possible, as were most things when Conduits were involved.

"Cole, I reckon that you're generating the RFE yourself. It should have worn out in a couple of days after your waking up. Three, max… I think that the Conduit sub-species will make a rather large come-back. I just hope that the Galaxy is ready for them when they do."

Well, Cole supposed he got what he came for, and a lot more besides. So, Yara was going to be a Conduit, eh? He wondered what kind.

As the Lightning Man made his way across the Crew Quarters to the Med-bay, he briefly wondered what kind of powers his favourite violent woman could possess.

* * *

The Blue Suns Prison Ship Purgatory slowly orbited the local star, Osun, in the Hourglass Nebula, Galactic South. The white walls shone with reflected sunlight, belying the darkest of sentient life held within. The Normandy SR-2 dropped out of FTL, and swiftly banked towards the Prison Ship. Jeff 'Joker' Moreau steered the ship into an expert glide into a docking bay, as Yara, Cole and Garrus got ready to head off-ship. Yara was clad in her brand-new Reckoner-Knight Armour, seemingly gliding around testing the micro-servos.

Due to this being a strictly non-combat mission, Cole was dressed in his typical Conduit getup- his yellow and black leather jacket, black khakis, and two-toed shoes. He did, however, go in for the typical piece of intimidating weaponry- an M-920 Cain and a Blood Pack Executioner Pistol. Vakarian was decked out in Turian Black-Ops Armour, made of the lightest, strongest material short of starship armour. His reliable M-92 Mantis had finally been replaced with the new Black Widow sniper, and a simple yet proven N7 Valkyrie. All illegally modified to provide maximum punch, minimum recoil, and maximum capacity. Cole had installed batteries in each, to provide his special 'super mass-effect' effect.

Not that he expected this to be a combat mission. Just… a bit of intimidation could go a long way. If this was a mercenary Prison Ship, why would they let the most well-known human- short of no-one- out of their clutches? A ransom on Yara could pay off any bounty, anywhere. Cole just hoped they didn't try anything.

Yara held her hand to her ear. Through her helmet, Cole could faintly hear Joker saying the docking platform was fully engaged.

"Right, Garrus, Cole, we are here to get 'Jack', and get out. Under no circumstances surrender your weap- COLE! You can't take a Cain! If you shoot that thing, the entire station will implode! Put it back!"

Cole pouted. "No fair! Garrus has a gun that can pop the windows! I wanna blow shit up! Pleeeeease?" He tried the puppy-dog eyes, but, apparently, being an Alliance soldier her entire life had hardened her heart. He'd have to see about that.

Cole went back to the Weapon Bench, and put the heavy weapon back. Instead, he took the M-12 Locust, and made sure it had Ultralight Material Upgrades, a bigger clip, and a stability dampener. He hated recoil throwing off aim. Replacing the Cain, he decided a Collector Assault Rifle could still intimidate.

Returning to the group, he mock-saluted Yara, and gestured for her to proceed out the airlock. Garrus was _not_ pleased.

* * *

A group of three mercs greeted the trio. A turian and two humans. Funny. The turian was obviously relishing having power over the other two, if their tense postures was anything to go by. They all held M-8 Avengers. Cheap fare, for mercs… Skeleton crew, must be.

"Greetings Commander Shepard. I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave your weapons here. This _is_ a secure station, after all."

The turian's under-vocals were wavering something fierce- he was scared shitless Yara would just cap him in the head. Poor sod. She just might.

"I think not, Captain. I already died once. I'm not doing so again because of a prison riot, or anything else for that matter. Tell the Warden we have business with each other, or get out of my way. I'm not in the mood to kill _everything_ in my way. Cole might be, though."

Classic good-cop bad-cop. Like it!

Cole grinned as sadistically as possible, letting out his inner Demon- the one who'd laid waste to Kessler, The Beast and Bertrand III. His eyes flashed a deep, blood red, and his skin paled, showing off sickly black veins lying prominent around his face and neck. The turian fainted, as the two humans realised who this was, standing _right in front of them_! They saluted Cole- a fist in the air, a fist on their chests- and stepped aside.

Cole re-sealed his Demon inside, and kicked the turian's spurs as he strode past behind Yara.

Garrus was pretty creeped out. He knew the basics, but hadn't seen Cole in action. The man could be scary as all shit when he wanted to be. He could feel everything becoming cold for a second, until the captain fainted. What was that?

"Uh- MacGrath, not to sound scared… But what the hell? Are you even _human_?"

"Haha! Yeah, I'm human. Just… Post-human. A Conduit. I have powers, and those powers are affected by my… Karmic State. My choices for good or evil. In my life, I've found out that no matter how 'Angelic' my actions, there has always been a 'Demon' inside of me. I released a small amount of control, just to make a point. I didn't know that turians were so… easily scared."

Cole grinned, blunting the blow.

"There's a myth, back on Palaven, Cole. About a turian with blood-red eyes, and white carapace. He used to drink the blood of those who'd sinned against the Spirits. I'd guess he was a sinner. And that he believed the stories, too. C'mon. Yara's walking too fast."

The two caught up, slightly the better for that. Cole knew he'd have something over every turian he saw, now. If he needed it.

* * *

The Commander paced into out-processing to find it empty, and the desks in a curiously… barricaded fashion.

"What's going on here?!"

A voice over the intercom resounded through the concrete room.

"_I'm sorry, Commander Shepard, but you're worth more to me as a prisoner than Cerberus' funds. Lay down your weapons, and you're sidekicks get to go free. They obviously haven't come here ready to fight!_"

Garrus' mandibles flittered a little at that- he was always, _always_ ready to fight. He slept with his sniper, for God's sakes! That, and turians had claws sharper than most chef's knives. The Commander- petite, soft-fleshed and curvy human that she was- drew her gun and shot the nearest officer in the face.

"Like hell we will! Hoo-Rah!"

Cole grinned. It was gonna be a massacre, and this time, there _were_ no innocents!

* * *

Racing down a burning corridor, Yara, Garrus and Cole chased after a _very_ illusive Subject Zero, or 'Jack', as the Dossier called her. Up until the cryo-cell came out of storage, they'd been under the impression that Jack was a man. Well, Jack was a woman, and one with little to no 'assets' and only a leather harness covering the bare necessities. She could run faster than the trio could, thanks to the criminal's biotics. The sheer amount of Blue Suns mercenaries that were throwing themselves at the three was astounding. The prisoners were worse. No weapons, they attempted to rape, torture or kill the three just for being there. They had been launched out of cryostasis too fast, and this had destroyed their minds. That, and they were all the worst of the worst to start with.

Jack was on her way to a shuttle pod, Cole was sure. If she made it there before they could reach her, then Cole could always drain the entire station, like he did with the Lazarus Station. It would, however, be a bit hard to explain away in case someone found out.

Around a corner, and the end was a dead-end. Even in the future, they still had pointless pieces of architecture. Jack was standing with her back against the wall, looking like a cornered dog. She knew she was trapped, and the bulkhead behind lead straight to the frigid wastes of space. She'd die before she knew it if she blew it open.

"Jack! We didn't come here to kill you! We came here to save you! Recruit you for a mission we're doing. We… need your help, Jack. Please. Can we talk?" The Commander managed to get her soft tone to carry the twenty feet to Subject Zero, who stopped searching for a non-existent way out, and peered suspiciously at her.

"What do you mean, kill me? As if you could! You do anything here, and this wall blows! Weapons down, or I Warp this wall!"

The girl was trying to bluff her way out. Marvellous. Next she'd say she could fly. The Commander let the threat fly by, but lowered her rifle. Cole could freeze her or something if she made a rash decision.

"Look. We came here to get you out. Not as a slave, but as part of a specialist team. And, by all accounts, you're the most brutal, belligerent biotic in the galactic disc. We need heavy firepower, and you're part of it. Please. My name is Commander Shepard, I'm working with Cerberus to research missing human colonies. That, and take down the Collectors. I can promise a lot of fighting, killing and a lot of weirdness. You in?"

Cole was surprised she told Jack about Cerberus so soon- purportedly, Jack had grown up in a Cerberus cell. Cole stared at the woman mere feet away- tattooed, stretched ears, pierced skin, she could've been any disadvantaged teenager the galaxy over. But, she was the most powerful human biotic alive. Even more powerful than Miranda when absolutely pissed and horny. Which was a scary combination. Jack relaxed her combat-ready stance just in time for the prisoners to find them.

Whirling around, Cole shot off two Hellfire Rockets that raged down the corridor, and set ablaze every organic at the end. Seven men and a woman writhed screaming, patting at the napalm-like substance dripping from them like acid. It only took another Scythe Bolt to clear the deck, and they were in the quiet again.

* * *

"Let me get this straight, man. You can electrocute people at any time, and you have fire and ice powers that combine with that? How the fuck does that even work? You got a battery on you somewhere?"

Jack looked pointedly at Cole's crotch.

"Nope. I _am_ a battery. And with Purgatory's energy now running through my veins, I reckon I've got some new powers. I'll test 'em out in the hold, when we get back. Speaking of- Yara, any idea of ETA?"

"Nada. Joker has to shake off the Blue Suns fighters first."

"Well, tell him to bring them over here. I'll give them a shock!"

Two minutes later, the glow of the Normandy's engines emerged from around the far side of the prison ship, with five Kodiak shuttles tailing it. There were scores of shots missing the Normandy, searing holes into the station itself. Cole sat outside the airlock, sticking to the hull by magnetism.

As Joker raced by, Cole built up a charge between his hands. In one, he held an Ice Bolt, sizzling with barely restrained energy, and in the other, a Fire Shot, crackling with napalm waiting to explode. In space, it would make one hell of a BOOM! As Cole melded the two shots together, the fighters saw an easy target. Swerving towards him, they formed a line of gunships ready to blow him into deep space.

At the last possible moment, Cole swept his hands out, now drenched in the Ice/ Fire combo shot, in a wide arc. The sharp ice shards that formed broke through the hulls of the gunships, whilst the napalm incinerated everything inside before they could depressurise. The resulting implosion of the mass effect cores of the shuttles and the icy heat caused a wave of light that seared itself into Jack's watching eyes.

That man was powerful, certainly more powerful than anyone she had ever seen. Probably even more powerful than her, in his own way. If she stayed with them, things were sure to be fun!

* * *

Back on the Normandy, Jack sat at the crew table talking things over with the Commander.

"… So I grew up in a Cerberus facility, where they ran experiments on us, to see who would be the strongest. I came out on top. When the Alliance rescued me in a roundabout way, they said they'd look after me. Instead, they gave me to an orphanage that persecuted me because of my biotics. How do you expect me to believe that you'd watch my back if I said yes?"

Yara wasn't too surprised that Jack had been bullied due to her biotics- most kids didn't show it until they were at least well into their teens. Plus, kids were downright nasty little bastards when they wanted to be.

"I don't expect you to believe me. Trust comes with time and experience. I have experience with kids that are rude little boogers, picking on anything they perceive as 'different'. But that's kids. What did you do to earn your stay on Purgatory Station?"

"I… crashed a space station into a hanar moon. I was under the influence, and acting on the orders of my cult's leader. Hence the shaved head. Turns out, he just wanted me outta the way, and didn't expect me to survive. I was imprisoned because of my psychotic outlook, instead of executed by the drell guarding the moon."

"Oh."

Well, she seemed slightly contrite, if not guilty about the carnage that must've caused. Maybe she'd change. Maybe.

"Ok, well, Jack, we are putting together a team of specialists to take down the Collectors. We've looked into the human colonies going missing across the galaxy, and in the process, we've come across quite a lot of heavy resistance. I think we need your help, in – well - killing. There's no pay, but we have Cerberus funding to get what we want and need. The Illusive Man has promised to erase your criminal record, and set things straight with 'Subject Zero'."

For a moment, Jack's eyes glowed violet, reflecting the power of her biotics.

"Don't call me that. Ever. I could tear this entire ship to shreds in seconds, and you wouldn't-"

"You wouldn't get halfway through the thought before I fried your synapses, Jack."

Cole stood behind the 24 year-old, running his white lightning over his arms. Shaking off the sparks, he stepped around the table, and sat next to Yara.

"We don't know you, Jack. We don't know what offends you, what pleases you, what kinds of food you eat or makeup you use. If we do something that offends your or otherwise affects you, damn well tell us. But if you think for a minute that I'm going to allow you to threaten anyone on this ship- especially the Commander, then you've got another thing coming your way. Another _50,000 volts_. Are we clear?"

Cole's non-threatening stance said everything. He was ready for anything she did. Could probably take it, too. Jack sat back, and placed her hands in her lap. She looked him straight in the eye and said, "I can only try, right?"

* * *

Jack had immediately retreated to the darkest, loudest place in the ship that wasn't filled with people- Engineering. The rumbling of the drive core, and the lack of light made it perfect for her- no one would come walking by.

Cole and Yara stood at the Galaxy Map in the CIC, running over the next Dossier. The Warlord. A krogan scientist who'd fought in the Krogan Rebellions who was encamped with Blue Suns mercenaries on Korlus. He'd supposedly had contact with the Collectors about technology that could overcome the genophage, which would be useful in finding out where they were. It would be the perfect chance to see how Jack reacted to working in the field, and especially as they didn't expect any shortage of killing to be done, it was right up her street.

"We'll need to get her some armour, probably something lightweight and manoeuvrable- you saw the way she danced about on Purgatory," Cole said.

"Yeah, but she'd still need some protection- maybe use one of your special shields, instead of a normal one?" Yara replied.

"Yeah, that could work…"

The two continued discussing the logistics as Joker flew onwards through the stars on the way to Korlus.


	8. Chapter 8: OKEER

**OKEER**

Brief warning: Mild mentions of toture and rape, nothing graphic. Thank you for your time.

Jack made her way to the Shuttle Bay, wondering what she was doing on a mission already. They couldn't trust her enough already, surely? Of course, she wouldn't off them at the first chance, she wasn't like that. These people understood her, and they didn't care about what she'd done before they'd met her. They did, however, care about how Cerberus had treated her as a child.

The Shuttle Bay door snapped open, revealing crates upon crates of weapons, armour, ammo, and mods. A pirate's heaven in the best money could buy. Jack was almost pining for the N7 Piranha she could see sticking out of the top of a crate marked 'N7 gear', and drooled when she spotted the M-11 Suppressor hidden amongst the chaff-like M-3 Predators.

She looked towards where the Commander was standing next to the armour mo- _they had an armour module!_ She hadn't been able to afford armour, barely having enough for food when she was briefly a pirate. _God, I hope I can get something more protective than this harness…_ Jack thought.

Her eyes slid back to the Suppressor. Before her eyes had even focused on it, her hand had slipped it into her trouser belt.

"You wanna watch where you stick that gun, Jack, you might blow off something irreplaceable!"

Jack whirled around, fists glowing blue before she realised Cole was sitting atop a crate, casually drinking a carton of fresh orange juice.

_Where the hell do they get their stuff from? I want some!_

"Here." Cole threw her a fresh, rosy red apple as he leapt off of the three-metre tall crate. "We need to get you kitted out for the mission ahead. You've already got a pistol, but you may want some other weapons if you want. Choose one from the cra-"

Jack had already scrambled over to the N7 crate and yanked the N7 Piranha out, stroking the matte black barrel and drum magazine, seemingly worshipping the fastest fire rate on a shotgun since never. Next, she bolted over to the mods crate, and sunk her arm in to the armpit. She withdrew with a recoil damper and a smart choke in her clutches. She took one look at the pistol she'd filched, and stuck her arm back in. An ammo capacity mod and a cranial trauma system were swiftly attached, too. Cole, astounded at the child-like enthusiasm Jack was showing, backed off with his hands in the air. When girls like guns _that_ much, he was sure a man wasn't needed.

"When you're ready, head over to Yara and the Armour Module."

Jack's dark eyes slid to Yara with an all-too-hungry expression on her high cheek-boned face.

* * *

The Commander was flicking through the armour suits and pieces she had on store, searching for something that would protect her from a charging krogan and an entire mercenary task force. Almost at a decision with N7 armour and a Breather Helmet, she suddenly had the feeling she was being watched. She glanced over her shoulder, coming lip-to-lip with Jack.

Frozen for a second, the two were both surprised at the lip lock. When Jack had been raped by the pirates she'd been picked up by, they hadn't been interested in making out. Jack had never felt anything as… nice, as this.

In a slightly mirrored fashion, Yara had never had any experience with men- or women. She'd never had the time. She'd enlisted in Alliance Military School before she was even interested in boys, at the age of sixteen. She put so much of herself into following her parents into the Alliance Navy, she never even stopped to think about what she was missing on the social side of things. Oh, sure, men showed their appreciation, in their own priggish ways, but she left well enough alone by breaking the fingers that touched. She didn't make it into the N7 Program by sleeping with the grunts, or anyone now that she thought about it.

The two separated in a mutual blush that made both appreciate the other. Cole was sitting on his crate enjoying the show, as any 21st Century man would.

"Uh- I- I'm sorry. I was just looking at the Armour Module. I didn't mean to-"

"I- I'm sorry I didn't know you were that close! I-"

They both stopped, fully comprehending the awkward situation. Finally, Yara started laughing. Confused, Jack looked at her as if she was crazy.

"I- Look, I came here for some armour, OK? Can you show me how to use this thing?"

* * *

With Jack finally decked out in a kinetic-protected bodysuit that the Illusive Man had given them- the Cerberus Spirit Armour, and with some minor armour plating over the shoulders, thighs and upper arms, Yara, Cole and Jack sat in the Kodiak waiting for lift off. Jack's over-powered gun selection was going to kick ass, Cole was sure.

"Right, just to make sure. We're here to extract a krogan scientist named Dr. Okeer. This could potentially be a rescue operation, an abduction, or an interrogation. The Blue Suns are here, although we don't know why. Cole, you'll be our long-range attack god- I mean, 'dog'- while Jack, you use your biotics to rip anything that comes within ten feet of us to shreds. I'll be picking off anything in between. We'll be going in hot, so jump out ASAP. Hoo-Rah!"

"Hoo-Rah!" The two chorused. Jack pondered something.

"Hey, Commander?"

"Yes Jack?"

"If we get to see the mercs' commanding officer, I'd like to… enquire, about some Suns mercs I knew as a kid. I've got a score to settle, y'know?"

"'Course. Y'know, if you've got a thing against mercs, you should talk to Garrus- Archangel as he's known on the Dossier. He's been killing Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns for the last two years."

Jack smiled slightly in return. "I may like to meet this 'Archangel' of yours, Shepard, he sounds like a blast!"

* * *

The Kodiak braked hard as it landed down on Korlus, Eagle Nebula, as the Commander, Jack and Cole leapt out of the shuttle. The first thing Shepard noticed was the distinct lack of enemies. That, and a very annoying loudspeaker.

"Being hired is merely the beginning. You must earn your place in the Blue Suns!"

That voice was going to get old real fast. Jack took one look around, spotted the loudspeaker, and popped off a suppressed shot, blowing it up. The resulting _clang_ drew the attention of the mercenaries well enough. The speaker dropped on one's head, flattening it, while the rest started shouting obscenities.

The trio ran around the far corner, Shepard leading them, and began to engage what was obviously an outpost. Jack was grinning already in released bloodlust.

"Pick your shots, guys! Limited ammo from here on!" Cole nodded, while Jack started head-shotting mercs like it was going out of style. Two heavies and a grunt fell before Cole even raised his hand. A Lance seared a hole right through one's helmet, while Yara let loose with her Indra sniper rifle. In two seconds flat, the squad had been demolished.

Yara could tell that she'd have a hard time racking up a kill streak with these two on her side. Over the lip of the outpost was a human merc crying for his mummy. Daft sod had a graze from Cole's Lance.

"Shit! Won't stop bleeding. I'm gonna- I'm gonna… Sonofabitch." Cole could see the cauterised wound from three metres away, and the sod hadn't even checked his wound. Pussy.

"Suck it up, soldier. I've seen worse. Take your mates over there. One of them got a shot through the balls. How's it feel to have a chance of living?" The soldier carried on regardless, either not noticing or not caring about the people in front of him.

"I knew it wasn't berserkers. Not in range. You're mercs. Or Alliance. Not- I'm not telling you _anything_!"

Cole stepped forwards, allowing a small amount of lightning to flicker between his fingers.

"Oh? That's a shame. I was hoping I wouldn't need to fry your fingers and toes one by one… never mind. Jack. Get his boots."

"NO! Please! OK I'll speak just don't hurt me! I just shoot the overflow from the labs! The old krogan- he's really been cleaning house lately. Jedore hired him to make her an army of mindless clones. But they're insane. We use them for live ammo training! Please!"

Suddenly, the wounded man's radio crackled to life.

"_Outpost Four, what's your situation? Jedore wants us to move. We need coordinates on that krogan pack._"

"What's he talking about?" Yara shucked her Indra, and rested it over the man's kneecap. At this point-blank range, his knee would blow off for sure.

"I already said! Crazy-ass krogan clones for Jedore's private army! _Please_!"

"Answer. Tell them you can't find them. They're not here. Got it?"

"Uh, patrol? Last group… dispersed. Lost sight five minutes ago."

"_Dispersed? Jedore will be pissed. She wanted a show…_"

"You asked for a report, you got it. Dispersed."

"_Understood. Returning to the labs._"

Yara took her sniper away from his knee, resting it on her shoulder.

"There. That wasn't that hard, now was it? If you start walking now, you may just make it back before you 'bleed out'."

The fireteam left him collapsed on the dusty metal walkway, sobbing in heartfelt relief.

* * *

"God, I hate Heavies. Every time you step out of cover, they fill your face with a rocket. Whatever happened to common decency? Letting the saviour of mankind get the first shot? Huh?"

Yara and Jack had collapsed against the wall for the third time, in hysterical giggles while remembering Cole's latest stunt. Catching a rocket with his teeth. He'd been hanging from the balcony while taking potshots at the various Blue Suns mercs, when all five of them fired rockets at him at once.

OK, so it hadn't actually _hurt_ him per se, but his pride had been taken down one too many notches.

Cole moodily slapped the door panel to green, and strode into the Warlord's lab.

"Here you are! I've watched your progress. How did a weakling human like you survive being hit by a rocket?"

Cole scowled at Jack and Yara, who were both trying to contain their laughter.

"Urgh. Never mind. It's about time. The batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs."

Yara stepped forward, having controlled her convulsions of humour. For now.

"I take it you're Okeer? You don't seem too grateful that we're here, or particularly caged."

"You may claim to be here to help, but the _formerly_ deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change." As he spoke, the krogan's teeth were revealed. And, with his heightened senses, Cole could smell a lot of undigested food. Possibly even rotting. "Surprised? All krogan should know you. I'm sure Rana has revisited your actions on Virmire."

"I didn't have a lot of room for finesse. If there was another solution, I'd have taken it." Yara's thoughts flashed back to the mindless krogan clones.

"But I approve. Saren's pale horde were not true krogan. Numbers alone cannot win a war! I gave the Blue Suns my rejects for her army, but she grows impatient; it's time for you to take me out of here. I have acquired the knowledge to create one pure soldier. With that, I will inflict upon the genophage the greatest insult an enemy can suffer- to be ignored."

The krogan was an impressive speaker. He gestured in grand waves of his hands, where others of his species would likely start shooting anyway. A nice change. Except for his fondness of long speeches.

"The Collector technology you are no doubt after was consumed in my prototype, but I only need one to start the process."

"I thought that the krogan ideal was to reach the numbers to threaten the galaxy?"

"No! We will not need the numbers! Not now. My soldier is a template. A greater threat than a thousand krogan, ten thousand of its phantom siblings that would have been at its flank. The galaxy still bears the scars of the horde. It feared the horde, but it will burn, and learn to fear the lance."

"So, you know how to dismantle a threat. Will you help us find the Collectors? Maybe even take them out?"

"Perhaps I can strike a deal to secure passage. But my prototype is not negotiable: it is the key to my legac-"

"_ATTENTION! I have traced the krogan release. Okeer, of course. I'm calling 'blank slate' on this project. Gas these commandos and start over from Okeer's data. Flush the tanks!_"

The Warlord rapidly started pushing buttons on his console, presumable trying to save as much of his data as possible. He got nearly halfway before gas started to vent into the room. He typed faster.

"Go. Hold her off. I will save my data, and make sure they cannot use it. I will store it on my omni-tool. If I die… take it. The prototype will need it. GO!" His thunderous voice rent the small lab, almost deafening the trio, due to their helmets' sound emulators.

Cole looked at the vents, thinking of a way to stop the venting. Acting on instinct, he started firing off Ice Shots at the grilles, watching as they sealed up. In the old ship's hold outside the observation window, the Blue Suns could be seen flushing out the tanks. What they didn't expect, was to have to deal with _very pissed off krogan_. That kept their attention off the air vents, which were allowing the backed-up lethal gases out into the air.

Captain Jedore tore through a rabid krogan as it reloaded its shotgun. She whipped around it, just in time to put a shot into the base of its spine, where its armour was weakest. Looking up from the collapsing monstrosity, she paled in fear. White wisps of vapour were pouring into the storage bay, and she stared as first one, then another, and then the rest of her troops began to fall. The krogan took slightly longer, thanks to their thrice-damned healing factor, but they too dropped to the rusted metal floor.

Seeing only one chance of survival, she began to run for the lab. They must have blocked the vent grilles somehow! She'd have to kill Okeer herself!

Running up the stairs, she placed one last salvo of shotgun pellets into the last krogan's face before running through the access door, and up the stairs.

* * *

While Cole was entertaining himself watching the fight going on below, and Jedore's progress therein, Okeer had finished backing up his data and wiping the system. He allowed EDI access after that to clean up anything he might have missed.

Handing the data drive to Yara, he calmly walked out of the door, dragging the pod with his prototype in behind him back to the waiting evac shuttle. Yara motioned for Jack to get one side of the door, and Cole the other. She hid herself behind some machinery, ready to lock down the doors once Jedore made her way in. They didn't have long to wait.

Blue Suns Captain Samantha Jedore came tearing up the staircase and barrelling into the lab room. Too late, she realised it was a trap. She span on her heel in time for Cole to send ice crawling underneath her. As she slipped, she loosed off two shots. One hit the Commander's shields, and the second went straight through, smacking into her shoulder hard enough to penetrate the mildly protective N7 equipment.

Cole quickly Arc restrained her, and retrieved her weapons, then went to treat the Commander to a good Pulse Heal.

"It's OK, Cole. I'm fine. That glandular medi-gel really works. I can barely feel it already. Let's get this over with, so I can get this bullet out of my armour."

As the two turned to collect Jedore, they saw Jack with her Piranha underneath the merc's chin.

"No! Jack, what're _doing_? Is this your way of getting information?"

"Hell yeah it is! This bitch was _on Pragia_ when I was a kid. She was the one in charge of making sure I didn't escape. She could've saved me, but she didn't! She left me to torture and darkness!"

Jack had tear streaks running down her face, as she snarled out her anger. Yara understood her point, but she refused to allow her to make it this way. She needed to change Jack, make her a better person. But first, stop her from committing blue murder.

"Jedore, listen to me. You tell us where you got the tech for the krogan from, and I won't let Jack kill you. Tell us how to replicate the feats of Dr. Okeer, and we'll set you free. How about that?" While Yara was interrogating Jedore, Cole was explaining the deal to Jack- Jedore would die either way, and Jack would do it.

"I- I won't talk. You can't torture me, not without specialist tools. You can fuck off before I betray the Blue Suns!" Jedore spat, aiming at the Commander's face, but missing completely and ending up splattering her armour.

"Cole? If you would."

The Demon of Empire City strode forward, letting his mask slip a little. The black veins creeped up from his collar, and over his head. All Jedore could see skin-wise was his face, which held a maniacal rictus-like grin. This was going to be fun!

* * *

Jedore was the kind of merc who got where she was by not talking. Hence the burned hair and slightly melted flesh on her once-pretty face. Cole had let his Demon out to play, and he was having too much fun. He didn't even ask any questions for the first hour. He gently electrified her minor pain centres one by one, and then the major ones. After that, he heated up, and then rapidly cooled areas of skin until she couldn't feel them anymore. And then, once she was nearly delirious with pain, he began to ask questions. What was her name, did she have any family, how long had she been in the Blue Suns, how many people had she killed. What was her name, did she have any family, how long had she been in the Blue Suns, why was she on Pragia in a Cerberus base with Subject Zero. The same starts, with different tagged-on questions. Gradually breaking her down. It didn't even take three hours before she broke.

"I- I was on Pragia. I worked for Cerberus back then, as a hireling. I shepherded the children, made friends with them. Broke their trust. We then broke with the Illusive Man's orders by turning her into a killing machine. Pitting her against the other kids, instead of making them a cohesive fighting unit. I- I raped and tortured all of them. I was only trying to make them stronger! I put them in the freezer room, and then in outside in the rainforest. I did everything I could to make them stronger. Jack had it worst. The other kids hated her because she was stronger than them. Because I didn't rape her. Because I showed her favouritism when they were around. I'm _glad_ I made her stron-"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Jack had let loose with her Piranha, shredding her body into unrecognisable scraps of meat in only five shots. Must've had something to do with that shredder mod installed. The poor girl stood there, chest heaving, her biotics flaring as she struggled to control her reignited bloodlust. This time, killing hadn't had the euphoric effect on her, just an addictive one. Having taken Red Sand before she knew the feeling of addiction.

Seeing the girl's internal struggles, Yara took her into her arms and hugged her tight. The skinny girl's tensed muscles tensed even more, and then relaxed. Jack hugged someone back for the first time, in return for her first ever true hug. She rested her shaved head on Yara's shoulder, and cried out her childhood, her mess of a life. She was determined not to let Jedore's meddling ruin her anymore.


End file.
